Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated the Hyderabad Metro Rail and took a ride along with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in its maiden run.
The first phase of the metro rail project covers a 30-km stretch between Miyapur and Nagole, having 24 stations.
The metro rail's commercial operations would start from tomorrow.
Besides the chief minister of Telangana, Modi was accompanied by Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana E S L Narasimhan, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, Telangana's IT Minister K T Rama Rao and state BJP chief K Laxman in the much-awaited train's inaugural run.
The trains would run from 6 am to 10 pm initially and the timings would be rescheduled to 5.30 am to 11 pm, depending on the traffic and demand, Telangana's Information Technology Minister K T Rama Rao said last week.
He claimed that the Hyderabad metro rail is the most innovative and largest such project in the world in public private partnership (PPP).
The concessionaire, L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd, has fixed a minimum fare of Rs 10 for a distance of up to two km and the maximum fare is Rs 60 for a distance of more than 26 km.
Each train would initially have three coaches and 330 people can travel in each coach. The number of coaches can be increased to six depending on the traffic, Rao said.
The project, which started in July 2012, was initially scheduled to be completed by June this year but delay in land acquisition and other issues resulted in it overshooting the deadline.
(With PTI inputs)
