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Hyderabad LRTS project revived

The Andhra Pradesh government has revived the Hyderabad Light Rail Transportation System, which has been hanging fire for the last four years.

Union Minister of State for Urban Affairs Bandaru Dattatreya, after a meeting with officials and MLAs, said a fresh survey has been ordered. The report would come in by October.

The project cost, meanwhile, was expected to shoot up to Rs 20 billion from the earlier estimate of Rs 12 billion.

With the revival of the project, two flyovers under construction at Pujagutta and Ameerpet in Hyderbad, has been stopped.

Dattatreya said senior state officials would meet Railway Minister Nitish Kumar in October to discuss the project, which was approved in 1994 by then chief minister K Vijayabhaskara Reddy and then Union urban development minister Shiela Kaul.

The urban development ministry had agreed to loan 15 per cent of the total cost. The state government was to raise 25 per cent, and the remaining 60 per cent were to be raised from financial institutions.

The state government had contemplated floating bonds for the LRTS, to lay a rail track between Kukatpalli and the historic Charminar to ease traffic congestion. However, the Telugu Desam government felt it was not cost effective and decided to construct flyovers instead.

UNI

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