Officials of the Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) said on Thursday spoke about the metro work and progres. Officials Said that "67% Of The Work Done; Nagole-Mettuguda And S R Nagar-Miyapur Stretches Get Safety Nod" After inordinate delays, the project is chugging its way to completion.With 67 per cent of work having been completed, the metro will be fully operational by December 2018."

Construction giant Larsen and Toubro (L&T), which is building the 71.16km elevated metro on three corridors, said that "the commissioner of metro rail safety (CMRS) had completed inspections and issued certificates for stretches between Nagole-Mettuguda and S R Nagar-Miyapur. As of now, viaduct foundations have been laid for a length of 59.05 km, piers for a length of 56.61 km, track work has been done on 35.7 km and span erection on 47.66 km."

According to officials from HMRL, "17 stations have been completed as a part of stage one and two which are the NagoleMettuguda stretch and S R Nagar-Miyapur stretch respectively. They also added that work at three interchange stations at Ameerpet, Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station and Parade Grounds, as well as 30 other stations, were in `active progress' and would be completed soon. Besides this, 57 trains which will ply on the metro rail routes have arrived at depots."

"The project is moving on the right track and L&T is committed to the project. Whole-hearted support and cooperation from the government of Telangana is there. City obstructions that crop up are being tracked and addressed at regular intervals at the highest level to make sure that the momentum is not lost and the project is completed," said S N Subrahmanyam, deputy managing director and president, L&T and nonexecutive chairman L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad).

Currently, HMRL officials also said that they are facing problem with the construction of rail-over-bridges. While the one at Bharath Nagar has been completed, the seven remaining ones are still in progress.

Government of united Andhra Pradesh in 2010, stated that the project should have been completed by July 2017. HMRL officials have been attributing the delay to various reasons, but said "they were trying their best to complete the project as fast as possible."

Earlier, the first stage of the project was scheduled to be commissioned in January 2015, but it missed the deadline. This had led to an inordinate escalation in the cost of the project to the tune of Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 crore.

Also Read: Traffic Diversion to Complete Metro Rail Work

BY M. DIVYA SRI