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At a historic Cabinet meeting held at Medaram on Sunday, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and his team approved several important policy decisions related to Metro expansion, local body elections, transport, education, tourism, and irrigation. This was the first Cabinet meeting conducted outside Hyderabad.
Expansion of Hyderabad Metro
One of the major decisions was to speed up the expansion of the Hyderabad Metro Rail. The Cabinet agreed to fast-track the process of taking over the Phase I Metro project from L&T. It also approved land acquisition proposals worth ₹2,787 crore for Metro Rail Phase II. Officials noted that approvals for several Metro corridors under Phases IIA and IIB are still pending with the central government, and faster land acquisition will help avoid further delays.
Conduction of Municipal Elections
The Cabinet also decided to conduct municipal elections as early as possible. The State Election Commission has been asked to complete the process before February 15 for 116 municipalities and seven municipal corporations, covering nearly 3,000 wards. The reservation process is already complete. Officials were instructed to prepare the election schedule carefully, for festivals like Ramzan and Maha Shivaratri.
Addition of New Trainsets
The Hyderabad Metro plans to add 10 new train sets, 60 coaches, to help reduce overcrowding on busy routes. Officials have asked the state government for permission, and once approved, they will start the tender process to purchase the trains. Currently, trains have only three coaches, but the new ones will have six coaches, which the platforms are already built to handle. The metro runs over 1,200 trips daily, carrying up to nearly 500,000 passengers, and often gets very crowded. Several discussions are happening with train makers, and the total cost for the new trains could be around ₹650-700 crore.
