HMR to scale down work on street-level infrastructure.

The Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMR) has decided to scale down civic infrastructure work underneath the elevated stations of the metro project owing to fund crunch as its plan to monetise assets being built at the street level has been nixed.

The government’s special purpose vehicle, which has been overseeing the construction of the project and its functioning, took up the task of providing world class footpaths, street furniture, seating, bollards, signages, parking bays, toilets and the likes underneath the metro stations for the benefit of passengers and pedestrians, following Minister K.T. Rama Rao’s orders.

Positive feedback

It has done the job in the inaugural 30 km corridor between Miyapur-Ameerpet-Nagole. Following a positive feedback, the agency took up similar work between L.B.Nagar and Miyapur and from Nagole to Hi-Tec City as soon as the lines were commissioned.

“We had plans to develop 500-700 metres of street-level infrastructure below the stations depending on the availability of space, but now, we are going to bring it down to about 200 metres,” admitted MD N.V.S. Reddy and added that the government has permitted them to take a bank loan to complete the work.

It would be the third time that the HMR had to go for a bank loan as the budgetary support for the project began to be cut down. Work to an extent of about ₹50 crore was awarded even as the government decided to give certain portions of street work between Ameerpet and Miyapur to the newly-formed Hyderabad Road Development Corporation (HRDC).

But the work got slowed or stopped in the recent times due to delays in loan processing. The HMR’s plan to monetise assets being built at the street level too was put on hold as the government decided not to allow any ‘commercial activity’ on footpaths lest it affects pedestrians.

The HMR took up laying and widening of the footpath to about 10 ft from Jubilee Hills Check Post till Hi-Tec City and wanted to experiment monetising the space by allowing a limited number of kiosks and select street vendors to run businesses for a fee as is done in the cities abroad. It was calculated that the funds spent for the street-level infrastructure could be returned to the government in seven years and later, the HMR could have a steady income to maintain the street assets.

As things stand now, the proposed 5-km ‘heritage corridor’ from the Legislative Assembly station till MGBS (Imlibun) with street-level work mimicking the historical past of the city with cobbled walkways, wrought iron railings, vintage fittings and so on, is also likely to be curtailed. Therefore, the upcoming Corridor Two from Jubilee Bus Station to MGBS too could see a limited extent of street-level work.

THE HINDU