Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrashekhar Rao flagged off the Metro train on Green Line stretch of 11 km of Hyderabad Metro Rail Project.
The train services have been flagged off from Jubliee Bus Station (JBS) to Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS), connecting Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
The opening of Metro service on this stretch will facilitate movement of commuters between two busiest Road Transport Corporation (RTC) bus stations in Telangana. It passes through several important landmarks like Parade Grounds, Musheerabad, RTC Cross Roads and Sultan Bazar.
Hyderabad Metro Rail, the world's largest public-private partnership (PPP) project, is now the second largest operational Metro network in the country covering 69.2 km.
The JBS-MGBS stretch is part of Corridor-II JBS-Falaknuma (14.78 km). The work on the stretch from MGBS on Musi river to Falaknuma is yet to start.
The stretch, which has nine Metro stations, is expected to reduce travel time to just 16 minutes from one end to the other, as against 45 minutes by road.
MGBS inter-change station, which is said to be the largest Metro station in the country, connects the Green Line to Red Line or Corridor-I from L B Nagar to Miyapur (29 km). At JBS, Green Line is connected to Blue Line or Corridor-III from Nagole to Raidurg (29 km).
On 28 November 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated first section Miyapur-Ameerpet-Nagole. In 2018, second section Ameerpet-L B Nagar was opened. Third section Ameerpet-Hitec City (10 km) was thrown open on 20 March 2019. Another 1.5 km stretch from Hitec City to Raidurg was commissioned in November 2019.
Hyderabad Metro is already carrying more than four lakh passengers with 780 trips every day.
The 73 km elevated Metro is the biggest Metro project in the world in public private partnership (PPP) mode at a total cost of Rs 20,000 crore.
Uniquely built, the station houses the interchange between Corridor-I and -II with three levels with each, again split into two, as one corridor passes over the other.