HMR's starting date - 5 July 2012

This itself is another face of a scam. Instead of announcing the date on which the works were commenced, the L&T and HMR announced that 5th July 2012 as the official starting date (Appointed Date) for the Hyderabad metro rail. That is, nearly eight months after commencing the works. After dilly-dallying for several months and more than one year after financial closure (March 2011) they have finally announced this date. The project will have to be completed within 5 years. Only time will tell and expose their hypocrisy

The official press release says: "On government's assurance, L&T started construction activity from May this year but the appointed date could not be declared as the government had to fulfill certain conditions,". L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad Ltd, the concessionaire of the project, together with HMRL, announced this official date of commencement.

As civil society activists we have been questioning the HMR and L&T regarding the delay in not announcing the Appointed Date (as per the Concession Agreement) even after starting the civil works.

It's tramway, not metro rail

It's tramway, not metro rail

B.V. Shiv Shankar, Times of India, Apr 15, 2012.

HYDERABAD: Is Hyderabad going to have a metro rail or a glorified toy train chugging through the city at a snail's pace? In a surprising declaration before the AP high court, Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) Managing Director,  N V S Reddy said that though the project is named as metro rail, in reality, it is a tramway. This was stated in the writ petition filed in the high court on April 9 seeking the vacation of the stay imposed by a single bench of the court last month on the works on the stretch between Ameerpet and Jubilee Hills of corridor 3 (Nagole-Shilparamam) of the 'metro rail' project.

"Hyderabad Metro Rail project is a tramway and that merely the project is named as metro rail will not cease to be a tramway," N V S Reddy said in the petition. What Reddy meant was that instead of a rapid mass transport that is supposed to be a panacea for the city's growing traffic problem, what actually taking shape is a low potential tramway.
"With the advancement of technology, it is possible to bring a tramway at an elevated level and it was valid because the service is only meant for intra-city traffic unlike a rail system that is meant for inter-city long-distance traffic," N V S Reddy said in the writ petition. HMRL's appeal seeking the vacation of the stay is slated to be heard by the division bench of Chief JusticeMadan B Lokur and Justice P V Sanjay Kumar on April 17.

Experts feel a tramway can never match a metro rail in terms of handling traffic load and speed. While the metro rail - a rapid mass transit system -has a maximum speed of 120 km per hour and an average speed of 80 kmph, a tramway can travel at a maximum speed of 40 km per hour and will have an average speed of a mere 20-25 kmph!

As far as the traffic capacity is concerned, a metro train can handle 50,000 passengers per hour per direction (PPD) at peak hours, while a tramway's capacity is just 4,000 passengers per hour per direction. Normally, a tramway is suitable for short-distance public transport carrying low passenger load with low speed and coal mines where the services are used to transport workers from one side to other and in amusement parks.

ITDP's BRTS - Hyderabad's Loss, Ahmedabad's Gain

This could have been Hyderabad's for the taking but this has now been implemented with aplomb in Ahmedabad!

Why did we lose out on such a environmentally friendly, cyclist friendly and pedestrian friendly project which caters to a city's culture, history and geography, keeping in mind futuristic urban planning, keeping in mind the majority of citizens who are poor or middle class unable to afford motorized vehicles, a project which costs peanuts compared to the much touted 'largest' PPP (public private partnership) the Hyderabad Metro Rail ?

The answers to the above incredulous questions are not simple but clues lie in the words 'politics, corruption, land-grab'.

Answers also lie in lack of foresight, lack of love for one's city on the part of those responsible for making such decisions. Development is a word that is thrown at you, Employment is another. No matter if in the process a throbbing, lively, perfectly functioning, clean and beautiful city will be converted into a graveyard of construction, more traffic jams, pollution, unaesthetic, unappealing and an eyesore for the benefit of a chosen few WITH NO LONG TERM BENEFIT vis-a-vis a BRTS which is, to reiterate, CHEAPER, FASTER, EASIER, HEALTHIER......

‎"Hyderabad is as tough place. We spent year there, came
close starting a BRT program.The guy who was BRT champion went on to become metro MD(NVS Reddy). Commissioner and Principal Secretary moved out . The Principal Secretary (urban) of AP became Principal
Secretary (urban) of Gujarat and actively supported the BRT program in
Ahmedabad!" from senior management in ITDP

"I was working for ITDP in 2003, we had convinced Hyderabad to build a BRT system. A few months later, they dropped the idea of BRT, political reasons, and decided to go with the Metro project, ITDP decided to work with Ahmedabad they have today a world-class BRT" another well-wisher from Colombia

What we need is to introspect, if there is an alternative proposed, if people are opposing, if urban planners, professors, heritage activists are appalled, can we do a better job, can we improve efficiency, make it cost-effective, resolve harmoniously, cater to some reasonable demands?

Metro is good, we are not anti-Metro per se but can we please have the Lines where they are most needed? Where the new businesses are, where the new educational institutions are not in the centre of the city, which is already, readily, happily, accessible to those who choose to go there (definitely not those who spout the Metro Mantra, they dare not leave their precious 'Hills'), we need connectivity in the OUTSKIRTS, is that so hard to understand that Hyderabad is NOT DELHI? We do NOT have a CBD (Centre Business District) a la Connaught Place, so can you please not plonk the same silly plan on us, we THE PEOPLE, thank you. Oh, and by the way, how come NO ONE has seen those plans and you run scared of RTI applications (Right to Information), what are you HIDING??

It is as simple as that. Else, who is this project for if not for the people?

Let us not get into right now the fact that Hyderabad has a wonderful local light train ALREADY IN PLACE called the MMTS, which needs a few extra tracks, more trains, good connectivity and it is good to give any Metro a tough chase! Despite approval of its second phase now this wonderful resource lies wasted.

To encounter the eerie silence on this legitimate protest from major newspapers like The Hindu, from the High Command, from the High Court, one would wonder what is the nexus that lies therein?

Are we a nation governed by robots since only humans have the capacity to conscientiously THINK?

http://www.itdp.org/index.php/our_work/detail/ahmedabad/