A ceremony was held in the presence of Mr Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, chief minister of Telangana State, and representatives of Hyderabad Metro Rail, L&T Metro Rail and Keolis Hyderabad at Jubilee Bus Station Parade station where the first train was flagged off.
The new elevated line runs from JBS Parade Ground to Mahatma Gandhi Bus station (MGBS), with nine stations and interchanges with the Blue Line at Jubilee Bus Station Parade and the Red Line at MGBS. Commercial operation commenced at 06.30 on February 8 with a journey time of 16 minutes.
Completion of the line brings to an end the first construction phase of the metro development project. The network is being implemented under a 35-year design, build, finance, operate and maintain PPP concession awarded to L&T Metro Rail, a special purpose vehicle 100% owned by Indian civil engineering company Larsen & Toubro, in 2010 .
The Green Line was originally planned to cover an additional 5.6km section south of MGBS. However, local protests in the old part of the city prevented the start of construction with no start date yet confirmed.
Keolis Hyderabad's was awarded a contract to operate the first phase by L&T Metro Rail in 2012. The eight-year deal commenced at the start of operation of a 13km section of the Red Line and 17km section of the Blue Line in November 2017, which are is currently carrying 400,000 daily passengers. This is expected to rise to 1 million in the near future.
L&T Metro Rail also awarded Thales a Rs 7.4bn ($US 100m) contract to provide CBTC and integrated telecommunications and supervision systems on all three lines. Hyundai Rotem secured a Rs 18bn contract to supply a fleet of 57 three-car trains, each formed of two powered driving cars and an unpowered intermediate vehicle.
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