Hyderabad's Old City — long bypassed by the metro map — is now firmly in the crosshairs. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Tuesday, 11 August 2026 directed senior officials to accelerate metro rail work under Phase-2 of the Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) network, with the MGBS-to-Chandrayangutta corridor at the centre of the push.

The 7.5 km stretch that changes Old City's commute

The proposed corridor runs 7.5 kilometres from Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) to Chandrayangutta, threading through one of Hyderabad's most densely populated and historically significant zones. The CM's review meeting — attended by Chief Secretary Sanjay Jaju, Special Chief Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, advisors Ramakrishna Rao and NVS Reddy, Metro MD Sarfaraz Ahmed, and Additional MD Ajit Reddy — produced three concrete directives: launch the tendering process for this corridor, complete pending land acquisition at the earliest, and consult Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on current technology standards before finalising the project design.

Seeking Delhi Metro's technical counsel is a well-worn playbook in Indian urban rail — the national operator has guided multiple city networks on everything from rolling stock to signalling — but the directive signals that Telangana wants to get the engineering right before shovels hit the ground.

More coaches for a network already straining at the seams

Alongside the Phase-2 push, Revanth Reddy ordered HMRL to procure additional coaches to match rising passenger volumes on the existing network. The instruction to initiate the coach-purchase process immediately suggests ridership growth has outpaced current fleet capacity — a pressure point the government is now treating as urgent rather than eventual.

Hyderabad Metro Phase-1, spanning 69 kilometres, was approved in 2008, built from 2012, and reached full operations by 2017. Nearly a decade on, the city has grown well beyond that footprint, and the Old City — dense, traffic-choked, underserved — has waited the longest for a metro connection.

Tendering and land acquisition: the two clocks now ticking

The real test of Tuesday's directives will come in execution. Tender initiation and land acquisition are the two variables that have historically slipped on Indian metro projects. With the CM personally chairing the HMRL review and naming a specific deadline pressure — 'as soon as possible' — the political signal is clear: Phase-2 delay is no longer acceptable. Whether the administrative machinery matches that urgency is the question Hyderabad's Old City residents will be watching most closely.