Jaipal Reddy played key role in Centre allowing states freedom

Former union minister S Jaipal Reddy played a key role in the Centre allowing use of standard gauge for Metro projects in 2008 across the country when the Railways was insisting on broad gauge and also helped in the sanctioning of the ongoing elevated Hyderabad Metro, a top official said Sunday. Paying condolences to the former minister, who died here following a brief illness Sunday, Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) Managing Director N V S Reddy said Jaipal Reddy as the then Union Minister for Urban Development had also batted for granting required freedom to the state governments in execution of the metro projects.

Jaipal Reddy strongly supported the Hyderabad Metro Rail project when several contentious issues were raised by different groups against the project, he said. As a Member of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on metro rail policy, Jaipal Reddy guided and supported us in 2008 in our arguments for the state governments getting the required freedom to execute metro rail projects, overruling the objections of Indian Railways, NVS Reddy tweeted.

The HMRL MD said the Ministry of Railways was insisting on the adoption of Broad Gauge metro projects in Indian cities, while world over the gauge for metros was Standard Gauge and BG metro coaches were not available. He recalled how a GoM (Group of Ministers) for the Metro Rail policy in 2008, in which Jaipal Reddy was also a member, sorted out issues with regard to shifting to SG from BG.

With our foreign field visits, discussions and interaction with international experts, we i.e., DMRC, governments of Maharashtra (for Mumbai metro), Karnataka (Bengaluru metro) and the then united AP (Hyderabad Metro) strongly pleaded for permission to adopt SG and freedom for state governments to execute modern metros without interference from Railways, he said. The Centre declared that Urban Transport was a State subject as per the Constitution and states were free to adopt whichever gauge they wanted, the HMRL MD said adding that's how all metros in Indian cities could be built as world-class metros with state-of-the-art technology..

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