Hyderabad, Dec 8 : The Hyderabad Metro Rail project has been selected as one of the top 100 strategic global infrastructure projects to be showcased at the forthcoming Global Infrastructure Leadership Forum being held in New York in Feb-March, 2013.
Apart from the Rs 14,132 crore Hyderabad Metro Rail project, two other Indian projects have also figured in this prestigious list. They are GIFT City (Gujarat International Financial Tech city) costing Rs 72,600 crore and Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project costing Rs 60,000 crore.
“Strategic 100” is a list of the top 100 infrastructure projects selected through a rigorous selection process on the basis of their potential to make significant difference to their cities/region/country in terms of overall performance and competitiveness. The list has been prepared by a reputed American agency after painstaking research of a large number of major infra projects in 66 countries on the basis of five criteria: their contribution to economic productivity; global competitiveness; generation of business; job creation potential; and carbon efficiency/sustainability.
Out of the 100 projects so selected, eight are from Brazil, six from USA, five each from Australia, Turkey, Canada and South Africa, four each from Saudi Arabia and UAE; 3 each from China, India, Egypt, Kuwait, Russia, etc. The list covers a wide range of infrastructure projects such as airports, ports, urban mass transit, railways, renewable energy, power generation and transmission, bridges and tunnels, high speed rail, natural gas pipelines, water and waste-water treatment, etc.
Congratulating the Hyderabad Metro Rail project authorities on this selection, the Washington based selection agency invited HMR Managing Director NVS Reddy to address the Global Infrastructure Leadership Forum being held from February 27 to March 1, 2013 in New York. The Forum consists of top international executives implementing major infrastructure projects; technology and construction experts; bankers etc., dealing with infra projects. It aims at promoting economic development through infrastructure building; filling funding gaps; and doubling the investment in world’s infrastructure by 2020.
Expressing his happiness over the inclusion of Hyderabad Metro Rail project in the prestigious global list, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy stated that the project would transform Hyderabad into a world class city and set path-breaking trends in public private partnership mode of infrastructure development.