Hyderabad Metro – an Urban Redesign Opportunity

The Independent Power Producers Association of India recently published an excellent 43 slide presentation that was used by NVS Reddy (MD of Hyderabad Metro) to make a speech at the “Smart, Secure and Sustainable Cities India Summit held in London on July 13. While I don’t have access to the video recording, here’s the presentation for you to browse through:

You may use the arrows to toggle between the slides to see what was presented.

What instantly caught my eye was the emphasis on this project being built as Transit+ development through which the last mile connectivity will be aggressively explored and ample facilities will be provided for easy & safe access to stations while enhancing the overall cityscape. This is important since at Chennai, where the Metro recently began commercial operations,  there have been various reports of access being restricted to its stations (see this article in the TOI), so it’s imperative that Hyderabad get this basic requirement sorted prior to starting operations.

The second emphasis (slides 28-38) is on enhancing the city’s greenery by planting saplings & flower beds not only around the stations entrances, but underneath the metro viaduct as well. There are both computer generated renderings and actual images of the Uppal station entrance to demonstrate this. Planting saplings is considered to be the easiest part, so I hope that L&T allocates funds for their upkeep/maintenance as well.

For more updates on Hyderabad’s Metro, check out the Hyderabad section of the TMRG!

– TMRG

August 22 2015 Update: See lovely images of the landscaping & greenery at the Uppal station in action here: Landscaping at Uppal Offers Glimpse into Hyderabad’s Future