Hyderabad: Next time you want to go out for Hyderabad’s old city heritage tour, you might only be able to take a tram to visit Charminar Iconic, Mozamjahi Market or the Tomb of Qutub Shahi.
Not affected by the delay in extending the Metro Rail to the Old City, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials now hope that the ambitious tram project will eventually collect steam and become a reality.
Hyderabad’s first tram can run among the Mozamjahi and Charminar markets as proposed by the former Mayor of Hyderabad Bontha Rammohan in 2017.
Since then, the official has conducted a feasibility study for a 2.9 km stretch announced at a cost of around 250 crores.
Official sources say that the challenge is to find a more easier plan that requires minimum acquisition and they hope to do so in budget estimates.
Apart from Mozamjahi Market to Charminar, another tram service between Golconda to Qutub Shahi’s tomb has also been proposed.
Officials say that priority will be given to the last miles connectivity in the old city.
“This project is expected to be carried out under PPP mode and initially we signed with Bourdeaux.
We are still related to companies based in France and are negotiating the project,” said a senior GHMC official to Ti.
Officials said that multinational companies such as Keolis, Codatu and Luminas were interested in the project.
The project report was submitted in February 2020 by the company.
The idea of preparing tram services in the old city was proposed after several delays in extending the operation of HMRL to Falaknuma.
Given the excess costs to be spent in land acquisition, officials contemplate initiatives such as light metro and find them ‘not worth’.
Finally the tram was put in after learning that some countries, especially in Europe, took a similar project including a tire-based tram.
The minimum and maximum rates for trams are estimated at around 10 and 30.
Up to the tram immediately for the old city heritage tour
