Bandaru Dattatreya accuses TRS govt of delaying Hyderabad metro, causing inflated costs

New Delhi: Former Union minister and BJP MP Bandaru Dattatreya on Friday accused the TRS government in Telangana of delaying Hyderabad metro project by three years and incurring the extra expense of Rs 3,500 crore. [caption id="" align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of BJP MP Bandaru Dattatreya. PTI[/caption] Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on 28 November inaugurated the first phase of the 72-km elevated Hyderabad Metro Rail project. After launching the 30-km stretch between Miyapur and Nagole, having 24 stations in between, he took a ride on the train on its inaugural run. The BJP MP from Secunderabad on Friday hit out at Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for “bragging” about industrial policy, alleging he did not make efforts to reopen defunct industries in the state. “The first phase of the metro project was to be completed by 2007 and the second phase by 2009. The Congress government kept delaying it till 2014. Then the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) came to power and sat on the project for three years giving unfeasible technical suggestions,” Dattatreya alleged. This delay has incurred an extra cost of Rs 3,500 crore which will be a burden to the people in form of ticket prices, he claimed and suggested the state to provide last-mile connectivity and parking facilities immediately to ensure people travel by metro train. Dattatreya said the BJP will begin agitation if the TRS government failed to take any initiative to reopen the defunct industries in the state in three months. “The party had promised to reopen various factories, including Nizam Sugar Factory and Sirpur Paper Mills in Adilabad. It has been three years, but there is no action yet. There are agitations and staff (of those factories) do not have any livelihood,” he said. The chief minister has failed to keep his promise of providing 1.12 lakh jobs, Dattatreya alleged, adding, “The TRS is good at media management.”