Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) has won the hearts of the commuters as a reliable, fast, safe and eco-friendly transport system in the city and it has been an innovative effort in creating world class infrastructure with least burden on public finances, said Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy on Tuesday.
He pointed out that the project has been implemented against innumerable hurdles and now stands as a testimony to the “courage, conviction and hard work” of those involved in bringing it to fruition and thus providing world-class travel experience and passenger facilities.
Mr. Reddy was speaking at the launch of his poetic anthology Megapatham or ‘Path in the clouds’ with sub-title “Metro kavita jhari”, a book of poetry, consists of 58 poems penned by him, depicting the entire saga of the metro rail project covering the entire gamut of events that shaped the historic project — right from the conceptual stage till the current day operations.
“It also chronicles the various hurdles faced during the brisk construction stage and in short it provides insightful information to the readers interested to know about this unique project in detail,” he explained.
Former Telugu University Vice-Chancellor N. Gopi released the book in the presence of poets Pydipala, Suddala Ashok Teja, Juluru Gourishankar, industrialist K.I. Varaprasada Reddy and his wife Prathima Reddy at a special function here.
The MD called Hyderabad Metro Rail an “engineering wonder” where most of the construction was done in precast mode, with various components being made in two of India’s largest urban casting yards on the outskirts of the city and fixed in their designated slots with least disturbance to the road traffic. Taking inspiration from a bird, the metro stations have been precast outside and assembled as “balanced cantilever structures” on the single middle pillars, for the first time in the world.
Mr. Varaprasad Reddy and poets Prof Gopi, Mr. Ashok Teja, Mr. Shankar and Mr. Paidipala appreciated the unique style of the poetry and felt that the “unique” contribution to the literary world ought to be translated into English and other Indian languages.