The prestigious metro rail project in Hyderabad is all set for inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening.
The Telangana government is going ga ga over the completion of the project in a record time. For the last couple of weeks, the local media has been giving extensive coverage of every aspect of the Metro Rail project, which is expected to ease the traffic congestions in the city.
And the Hyderabad Metro Rail authorities are working round the clock to get the project ready for inauguration.
The entire city is decked up with hoardings and banners of metro rail with pictures of father and son – Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and IT and urban development minister K T Rama Rao, as if it is their biggest achievement.
And KTR is visiting the metro rail stations and conducting reviews almost on a day to day basis.
So far so good. Any ruling party will try to take the credit for the completion of any ongoing project. So is the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which has in fact done nothing for the project, since it was executed by private firm L&T.
But what the TRS government and the HMR has ignored is giving due credit to late chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, who was the man behind the entire project.
It was during the regime of YSR that the Hyderabad metro rail project was conceived. It was YSR, who took up the project under private and public sector participation (PPP) mode, despite opposition from the Centre and other experts like Delhi Metro Rail corporation chairman Sreedharan.
Though the project did not take off during his regime due to his untimely demise and also the Satyam scam, the work commenced only during the Kiran Kumar Reddy regime, thanks to the initiative taken by the then Union urban development minister S Jaipal Reddy.
Most of the work was completed during between 2012 and 2014.
In fact, after the TRS came to power in Telangana, the work slowed down due to proposed changes in the alignment and also due to litigations with the L&T with regard to cost overrun.
But now, KCR and his team are claiming credit for the entire project without the mention of YSR or the Congress party!
