Hyderabad’s Airport Metro to be a wholly separate line

The upcoming Airport Metro in Hyderabad will not be an extension of the existing Blue Line but an entirely new, specialised corridor that would allow air passengers to check in and part with their baggage at the Metro station itself, according to N V S Reddy, managing director of Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd (HMRL). The Airport Metro, recently announced by the Telangana government, will enable passengers to directly reach the boarding gates at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Shamshabad from near Raidurg Metro station, 31 km away. Reddy was speaking at an event this to commemorate five years of operation of HMRL along with project concessionaire L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad Ltd (LTMRHL). The operations commenced on November 28, 2017, and Reddy said over 2 lakh passengers travelled on the first day of operations, which is still a record. According to him, the new Airport Metro project would be completed in three years. The state government recently announced that Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao would lay the foundation for the Airport Metro on December 9 and that the project would be fully funded by the state government unlike the existing network of 69 km, which is the world’s largest Metro rail project in public-private partnership. See also: RITES to build metro line connecting Chandigarh, Mohali, PanchkulaL&T will have to compete for the new Metro line