High Court have not reached the phase of arguments yet. Activists allege that right from the top brass of the bureaucracy, everybody is hand-in-glove with the metro rail and the L&T, to safeguard the project details.
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Since its planning and inception, the metro rail has come under the scanner of media and various civil society groups, who allege that while the project is certainly needed, its feasibility and policies need to be questioned.
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“The budget kept shooting up and the route plans of the rail kept changing. Initially, in 2008, when I asked them for a copy of the detailed project report (DPR), the managing director NVS Reddy said it was alright if I inspected the documents but I cannot take a copy of them with me,” said D Raja Reddy (name changed), an RTI activist.
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Surprisingly, the L&T and the HMRL’s policy on RTI applications changed after the MAYTAS-SATYAM disaster was unmasked in 2009. The issue that remains unsolved is why the judiciary has postponed the case of the two PILs filed by this activist, and why, in one such case, not even a counterfoil was registered. “Furthermore, the entire setup of the metro rail was designed under the AP Municipal Tramways Act of 2008, and as per the Act, a public notice or discussion was to be allowed before the project was taken up. No such thing ever materialised,” he said.
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What stands out is the absence of the GHMC, which has actual and legal responsibility of the HMRL. The GHMC has, however, been forced to give up its properties with no great stand in the massive project.
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The completion of the project will also ring a death note for APSRTC and MMTS, the former already burdened by enormous financial difficulties. Activists say investing and planning on expanding the MMTS would have been far better than the HMRL project. “Even today, a 15 km journey costs `6 in the MMTS. The metro rail will not only deface the City, but is also not a commercially viable project in a crowded City like Hyderabad,” said Rakesh Reddy D, an RTI activist.
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