Corridor II of the metro project, proposed to run between Jubilee Bus Stand [JBS] and Falaknuma may be scrapped as Telangana CM Chandrasekhar Rao is demanding for underground line in order to protect the heritage structures. With this decision the officials are deliberating to scrap of the propose route of the Corridor II.

KCR has sought underground line for the route touching, Sultan Bazar, Moazzam Jahi market and Assembly  and asked the officials to come up alternative plan. However, the officials say change in plan would cause more delay to the Metro and claimed that the cost would get increased by two or three folds. According to the officials, Metro is being made with Rs 14,132 crores and elevated costs around Rs 200 per kilometre and for an underground line it would be anywhere between Rs 500 crore and Rs 600 crore per km.

The other arguments the official say that underground construction would take a minimum of two years time which means the launch could be further delayed beyond the set deadline of March 2015. And so the officials are opting to scrap off the Corridor II as more number of heritage structures fall in this route and redesigning would be most expensive.

Heritage Conservation Committee [HCC] members are not happy with the idea of scrapping the Corridor II and asked the government to use better technology and engineers to come up with suitable and alternative for the execution. A former member of HCC cited Konkan Railway project as the best example for it.

But the developers of the project L&T or the Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited [HMRL] are tight lipped to comment anything on KCR's demand. Managing Director of HMRL NVS Reddy said the matter is under government's scrutiny and it is too early to comment.

(AW: Vamshi)