Hyderabad, Dec 14 (IANS): Putting on hold the Hyderabad Airport Metro Rail project and the plans to develop mega township on the land acquired for Pharma City near Hyderabad are the two major decisions taken by the new Congress government in Telangana, reversing the plans of the previous BRS dispensation.

The decisions were taken by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy at a review meeting on Hyderabad Metro Rail project and its expansion.

He directed officials to keep the present Airport alignment plan and its tender on hold and quickly prepare alternative alignments from MGBS-Falaknuma and from LB Nagar via Chandrayangutta.

The foundation stone for 31-km-long Metro stretch to connect the Information Technology hub of Hitec City to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad was laid in December last year.

The Rs 6,250 crore project was proposed to be built by the state government. It was announced in June that the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) and the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd will contribute 10 per cent each.

As per the plans of Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd, the corridor between Raidurg metro station and Airport terminal station will have an elevated portion of 29.3 km and underground portion of 1.7 km.

Revanth Reddy wanted to know how the Airport Metro alignment was fixed along the Outer Ring Road (ORR). He mentioned that already a very good transport facility is available in the form of ORR and that since a major part of the city’s population is in the central and eastern parts and in the old city, priority should have been given to take the Airport Metro alignment through Old city from MGBS-Falaknuma; and from LB Nagar.

The Chief Minister stated that the city will have to be developed and expanded equally in all directions and that Hyderabad has tremendous potential to be a global city with no geographical limitations.

Keeping the fact that Telangana is already at 40 per cent urbanisation and is further rapidly getting urbanised, he said that Hyderabad city should be planned for accommodating initially about two crore population and finally around three crore population, by creating satellite townships all around ORR and Metro Rail shall play an important role in providing affordable and fast connectivity to these satellite townships.

He also advised the senior officers to plan for an environmental-friendly mega township in the huge extent of lands acquired for Pharma City near Kandukur. He opined that the polluting Pharma City should not be near to Hyderabad and instead, it shall be located in a distant place.

The previous government had planned Hyderabad Pharma City as the world’s largest pharma cluster. It was planned on 14,000 acres of land at Kandukur, about 50 km from Hyderabad.

Then Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao had said that Pharma City could attract over $8 billion in investment and create over 5 lakh jobs. About six months ago, he had stated that the government was in final stages of clearing some legal hurdles.

However, there were apprehensions in some sections that Pharma City could lead to pollution in surrounding habitations. The previous government, however, had claimed that the Pharma City will have zero discharge of effluents as all the units coming up there will be equipped with the world’s best technology to prevent pollution.