Hyderabad, February 09: A two-judge bench of the AP High Court comprising chief justice and justice Vilas Afzalpurkar on Tuesday issued notice to state government in a public interest writ petition challenging the Hyderabad Metro Rail project.
The Human Rights Forum state president S Jeevan Kumar in a petition contended that AP Transway Act 2008, under which the state government has been executing the metro project, do not empower the state government to execute a project like metro rail.
The petitioner informed the court that the Railways is a Union subject as per the Constitution whereas Tramway is a state subject.
But metro rail can be constructed under Metro Rail Act as done by Delhi and Bangalore.
The Metro Rail Act in its definition specially mentioned about the exclusion of tramway.
“However, the state government is trying to construct Hyderabad Metro Rail under AP Tramway Act 2008, though the Act do not empower the state government to construct Metro rail under Tramway Act,’’ the petitioner contended.
The High Court served notices to state government, L&T, municipal administration and urban development department to file their counters.
The court gave two weeks time for the respondents to file their counters.
The petitioners also contend that the entire acquisition proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act was contrary to law and liable to be set aside.
–Agencies