A ROUND table meeting organised by Citizens for a Better Public Transport (CBPT) in Hyderabad felt that Hyderabad Metro Rail Project (HMRP) was being conceived and taken up in a very clandestine manner. The meeting demanded the state government first to seek public opinion in this regard.

Experts, advising the Andhra Pradesh government to go slow on its HMRP and stall the proceedings still opinions from the public and experts are secured.

In the meeting they asked the government to keep the proposal in abeyance for at least six months; also the opening of the bids and award of contracts should be postponed till then.

Experts from different fields have reiterated their stand that the state government should make all the relevant documents available to political parties, voluntary organisations and the general public, before entering into an agreement with private consortia formed by national and multi-national companies on the HMRP

Senior scientist PM Bhargava said, "The project will be a disaster like the international airport at Shamshabad. The airport built without holding a public opinion was a picture of chaos."

He said that the state government should try for a consensus of all political parties, environmentalists and non governmental organisations (NGOs) before taking up any major project.

"The government also should conduct environment impact study and a public opinion," he said. He alleged that the metro rail officials were keeping the project close to their chest and not allowing anybody to go through the documents.

Delhi-based architect and town planner, Kuldip Singh said that the metro rail project was a stand alone as it was not part of the master plan. He alleged that it was engineeringly incorrect as the project was based on transportation volume. He lamented that the project seems to have been greatly influenced by real estate.

Metro rail, instead of reducing the traffic congestion, he warned that it will cause more of it as the main roads will be full of elevated structures. Instead of solving the problem, it will invite more trouble for the city.

Forum for better Hyderabad (FBH) president, Ved Kumar, wanted the state government to drop the project and strengthen the existing public transport like city buses and take up multi model transport system (MMTS) phase II.

C Ramachadnraiah from Citizens for a Better Hyderabad (CBH) said that the proposed metro rail was the most expensive infrastructure project in the city’s history and would change the skyline of the city forever. "It deserves a much wider debate," he said. According to him this will not benefit the citizens, but contractors, politicians and officially only will be benefited.