HC notice to AP govt, Centre over Hyderabad Metro

HC notice to AP govt, Centre over Hyderabad Metro Rail project

Hyderabad, Feb 9 (PTI) Andhra Pradesh High Court has issued notices to Central and State governments on a public interest writ petition challenging the Hyderabad Metro Rail project. Following a petition filed by the Human Rights Forum, the High Court yesterday served notices to the respondents and gave them two weeks time to file their counters. The petitioner S Jeevan Kumar, president of the Human Rights Forum, complained that the Metro Rail project proposed by the Andhra Pradesh government for Hyderabad city was "unconstitutional" and will affect the ecology of Hyderabad in addition to spoiling its historic image. The petitioner contended that AP Transway Act 2008, under which the state government was executing the Metro project, does not empower it to take up a project like the Metro rail. "Basically the subject concerning the Railways is within the administrator's ambit of the Central government, and the state government cannot take up such a project as the Metro rail was being constructed under Tramway Act," Kumar contended and claimed that the proposed project was not economically viable. The Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court who presided over a division bench directed notice to the state government, Secretary of Railway Department (Central government), L&T (which has been awarded the Metro rail project in Hyderabad), Secretary of Revenue Department and also Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department on the matter.