Work on the Hyderabad metro rail will begin by May next year and some sections will be opened for traffic by March 2014. The entire project will be completed by end of 2014.

A decision to this effect was taken on Saturday at a meeting chaired by chief minister K Rosaiah.

It may be recalled that the project is behind schedule by a year as the Andhra Pradesh government has called for fresh tenders. The first tenders were called off as the Maytas Infra-led consortium failed to achieve financial closure for the Rs 12,132 crore (Rs 121.32 billion) project in March this year.

Rosaiah asked the authorities to adhere to the current bidding schedule. The last date for receiving pre-qualification bids is November 2 and for financial bids, it is January 22.