Right from the floating of the idea till the opening of its first phase now, Hyderabad Metro has seen five Chief Ministers – N Chandrababu Naidu, YS Rajasekhar Reddy, K Rosaiah and N Kiran Kumar Reddy (of Andhra Pradesh) and K Chandrasekhar Rao (of Telangana).
The project ran into several hurdles including 200 legal challenge and an agitation by the traders of busy Sultan Bazar area to force the change of the route. The protests, however, failed.
While work on all the three corridors was 85 per cent complete, work was yet to begin on Imlibun to Falaknuma stretch of Corridor III as it passes through thickly populated old city of Hyderabad.
MIM, which has political control over the old city has demanded the change of the route to minimize the need for demolition of houses, commercial properties and the religious places. The state government and the l&T were not willing to accept it.