In response to the Press Meet yesterday, the news item published in The Hindu today (30 Dec) quotes the HMR officials denying that flyovers would be built and new properties taken over. They claimed that only junction improvements will be done. We released another statement today nailing their lies, and the MOU clearly talks about "grade separators/flyovers". The statement is given below:
Press Release (30 Dec 2011)
The Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) officials are trying to hoodwink the public by saying that there is no plan to build flyovers but only junction improvements (in a section of the media, 30 December 2011). They will get exposed badly in the coming days.
1. Item 14 of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by MD of HMR Mr. NVS Reddy with Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH), Government of India clearly uses the terms “grade separators/flyovers” to be built “simultaneously along with the construction of the metro viaduct, by HMRL at their cost” and then mentions the 11 junctions where such “grade separators/flyovers” have to be built. It is true that a grade separator can be an underpass or a flyover. Building underpasses at these busy and crowded junctions means taking up tunneling work which is not going to be an easy task at all. THE ONLY OTHER OPTION IS TO BUILD FLYOVERS.
For the JNTU junction the MOU clearly specifies that the “grade separator to be extended upto Nizampet junction on Pune side and Usha Mullapudi junction towards Hyderabad side”. Are we to believe that the HMRL will do tunneling for an underpass in this stretch? If not, what else can it be other than a flyover? And IT HAS TO BE PARALLEL to the Metro Corridor. It can’t be otherwise. So is the case with other junctions. Whom are the HMRL officials trying to fool?
Is the HMRL planning to do tunneling for underpasses at Maithrivanam (Ameerpet, where metro corridors 1 & 3 intersect above the road), Khairatabad and Mozamjahi Market? If so, why can’t they come out with full facts?
2. Another big lie being told by the HMRL officials is that no properties are going to be acquired for this corridor.
The Annexure-II of the MOU clearly provides the details of properties to be acquired. Beginning from Miyapur to L.B.Nagar it identifies five stretches and provides the number of properties (302) and their area (51,843.9 sq.mts) on the Right Side, and on the Left Side (375 properties worth 63,136.9 sq.mts). That means a total of 677 properties (worth 114,981 sq.mts of area) have to be demolished along this corridor for road widening so that metro corridors and the flyovers can be built.
3. Item 19 of the MOU says: “In case, the above mentioned measures in toto are not implemented by HMRL at their own expense, this Agreement/MOU will cease to exist”.
So, what next? Can HMRL escape from the MOU if it has to take up works on this corridor?
It is amazing to see the eagerness of the metro officials to ‘debate’ with public and claims of their transparency. Even under RTI Act, they refused to provide the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of the metro project. What a sham transparency?
It is also amazing to see the HMRL officials claim a monopoly of knowledge on Hyderabad’s traffic and its future. That most of them came from other govt departments, from sanitation to accounts, on deputation with hardly any prior experience on city transportation speaks volumes about their knowledge over the city.
Hyderabad is not Dubai, it is meaningless to compare them. It is a shame to compare it with London. European cities have given highest priority to pedestrians and cyclists. What to talk of Hyderabad on these parameters?
Ever since the metro project came to fore, the BRTS has been practically shelved/killed and not a rupee allocated to the MMTS (local trains) phase-II that should have been completed in 2005 and benefitted millions of people. And they talk about the present and future of traffic in Hyderabad?
We will continue to expose the destructive nature of this project in all its dimensions in the coming days.
Sd/-
1. Dr. C. Ramachandraiah, Social Scientist, Convenor, Citizens for Better Public Transportation in Hyderabad
2. Shri B. Ramakrishna Raju, Convenor, National Alliance of Peoples Movements (NAPM), Andhra Pradesh
3. Mr. O.M. Debara, General Secretary, Forum For a Better Hyderabad (FBH)
