Hyderabad Metro Rail Project to Come Under Unified Transport Authority

In India the Andhra Pradesh government is considering putting in place a unified metropolitan transport authority for better integration and coordination of all modes of public transport in Greater Hyderabad. The plan is to achieve this by the time the developer for the 67km three-corridor metro rail project is finalised by October this year.

All the modes of public transport including buses, the present multi-modal transport system and the proposed metrorail project would be integrated into a single system, according to S P Singh, principal secretary, department of municipal administration and urban development.

A pre-bid conference was held today for the representatives of the five consortia shortlisted for the Rs 8,500-crore project, which would be awarded on a BOT basis to a single developer who quotes the lowest amount of viability-gap funding to be arranged by the government.

According to N V S Reddy, project director, Hyderabad Metro Rail Project, the bidders are given a timeframe to file their technical bids by 13 July 2007, and the developer would be finalised by October this year. The project is expected to be completed in four years from then.