Complete pending HMRL projects first, Kishan tells KCR

HYDERABAD: The state government’s plan for a new Metro Rail line from Mindspace junction in Raidurg to RGIA, without completing existing projects, is yet another attempt by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to hoodwink the public and divert attention from his failure to complete the HMRL projects, Union minister G. Kishan Reddy said here on Thursday.

“This pattern of abandoning existing projects that bring relief to the poor, followed by fancy announcements and inaugurations seems to have become a pattern of the ‘Farmhouse Family’,” Reddy said in a statement.

“This is not an issue that is being brought up for the first time. In fact, on December 29 of last year, I had written to the Chief Minister explicitly requesting him to complete commitments as far as Metro phase-1 was concerned,” he said.

“For the opportunist that he is, it is not at all surprising that his dishonesty, obstructionism and crass opportunism had earlier led him to declare that Hyderabad Metro was an excuse for land-grabbing. He had even promised bloodshed while addressing a public meeting in Sultan Bazaar in the past. The present U-turn by way of proposing to lay foundation stone for a new line is not surprising as he is compelled to hide his own failures,” Reddy said.

The Centre is providing approximately `1,500 crore as viability gap funding (VGF) to support the project. The Union government has already provided 85 per cent of its VGF support to HMRL for the Phase-I project, he said.

Kishan Reddy said as per the agreement between the Centre and the TS government, a Green Line (Corridor Two) of Stage-4, Phase-1 was planned from Jubilee Bus Station in Secunderabad up to Falaknuma in the Old City via Charminar. However, the Green Line was stopped at Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station in Afzalgunj.

“As a result, those living in the west side of the Old City are suffering,” he said.