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Hitec City

Hyderabad on Sunday (24th August) became the second largest city in India — in terms of geographical spread — and thus joined the elite league of metropolitan cities. With Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) replacing the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (Huda), the state capital, which earlier enjoyed A1 status with a population of 75 lakhs spread across 725 sq. km of area, has now surpassed four other metros in terms of area: Mumbai (4,272 sq. km); Delhi (1,483 sq. km); Kolkata (1,425 sq. km) and; Chennai (1,167 sq. km).

A rendering of the upcoming Lanco Hills with its Signature tower

With a spread of 7,000 sq. km, Hyderabad is second only to Bengaluru, which is the largest metropolitan in India with an area of 8,000 sq. km. Apart from the 16 mandals of Hyderabad and 22 mandals of Ranga Reddy, 10 of the Medak district, four of Nalgonda and two mandals of the Mahbubnagar district have now come within the HMDA’s purview. The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy set the foundation stone for the HMDA central office near Hitex in Hyderabad on Sunday. While addressing the gathering, Dr Rajasekhar Reddy assured the residents of the twin cities that within the next four to five months, they will receive 24-hour piped water supply.

Statue of Buddha standing in the middle of Hussain Sagar lake

Dr Reddy said that the formation of the HMDA — by merging adjacent municipalities and villages with Hyderabad — has paved the way for the state capital’s development as a model metropolis. Several ministers and legislators also participated in the ceremony. The Huda vice-chairman, Mr K.S. Jawahar Reddy, has been appointed as HMDA metro commissioner.

News source: Deccan Chronicle

All pictures courtesy: Wikipedia & Skyscrapercity

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Rakshabandhan wishes to one and all.  Meanwhile, wanted to share this extremely funny ad of Castrol starring none other than the Thalaivar Rajnikanth himself.  Have a good laugh.  Saw this ad first on Freehyd forums.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG38tUdFms0]

Wikipedia on Rakhi.

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Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi and now Hyderabad.  Its a metro boom all over India.  Finally the infrastructre boom has started and the ones who persisted and got into the deals could reap a good harvest over the next few decades.  Of course, land acquisition would be a major hurdle, with political parties eager to jump on to the bandwagon when a few properties would be demolished.

But we cant discount the fact that more than US$200 billion worth of infrastructure projects are going on in India at this time and its only going to increase.  Maybe 4-5 years down the line, we would have a better infrastructure and wouldnt be so surprised when we go overseas and see their metros, road and rail network.

The Andhra Pradesh government has formally issued the ‘letter of award’ in favour of Maytas Infra-led consortium for undertaking the development of Hyderabad Metro Rail Project on design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis.

The consortium, Navabharat Ventures Limited, Maytas Infra Limited, Ital Thai Development Public Company Limited and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (‘NMII Consortium’), will take up the metro project estimated to cost Rs 12,000 crore (approx US$ 3 billion) in Hyderabad.

The project has three lines totaling 71km, which include

Miyapur to LB Nagar – 30 Kms
Jubilee Bus Station to Falaknuma – 15 Kms
Nagole to Shilparamam – 26 Kms

Full article here

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After the success of Delhi Metro, India seems to be going the whole hog in the race to make metros for all the big cities. Bombay has already started the construction and its been awarded to the Anil Ambani’s Reliance Energy group. Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad are in various stages of bidding and planning. Come 2012, we would be witnessing spanking, state of the art transport infrastructure all over India. Hopefully, more and more people will use the metro and other forms of public transport so that we can reduce our consumption of Oil and related products.

Financial bids for the Rs 9,696-crore elevated Hyderabad Metro Rail will be opened on June 20 and the consortia seeking the least financial support from central and state governments will be awarded the contract. The Hyderabad Metro Rail managing director, Mr N.V.S. Reddy, said the central government and state government have agreed to fund up to 40 per cent of the project cost. But, the consortia quoting to take least financial support from the governments will win the rights to execute the project, he added.

Works on all the three proposed corridors of metro rail will be taken up from August this year, and the target to run the first service is 2012 end.

In fray for one of the largest metro rail projects being taken up under Public Private Partnership (PPP) are five selected national-international consortia, which have already qualified in technical bids. They are:

1. Essar Constructions (ECL), SREI (Kolkata), Singapore MRT, SEC and STE of Singapore.
2. Magna Allmore (Malaysia), Siemens (Germany), Emirates Trading Agency (ETA — Dubai) and Nagarjuna Constructions (NCC).
3. Reliance Energy (Anil Ambani group) and Bombardier (Canada).
4. GVK, Gammons, Alstom (France) and IDFC
5. Navabharat, Maytas, Ital Thai (ITD — Thailand), IL and FS.

Above news courtesy: Deccan Chronicle

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For all those who missed out on the Sehwag innings yesterday courtesy the “as usual” blunder by NEO Sports, here is a clip, some kind soul posted on youtube.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=ASm0rStSpCs]

I think the innings was utter contempt to the opposition’s bowling and reputation. At one point Sehwag was so pissed off by the negative line pursued by the South Africans that he literally kicked away one ball from Paul Harris which was straying too much towards the leg.

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