Metro problems

Two big Indian cities, Bangalore and Hyderabad, have been in the news recently because of controversies created by the Metro Rail projects in those cities.

The Hyderabad Metro was in the news because its developer, Maytas Metro Ltd. ran into many problems after the collapse of its group flagship company Satyam Computers. It could not bring financial closure to the project by the due date, but still the contract with the company has not been cancelled by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. This is just the latest in a long list of controversies and problems that the project has faced.

The Bangalore Metro has been mired in its own problems of late – primarily with respect to its alignment and destruction of trees along this alignment, particularly within the historic Lalbagh. Citizens groups in Bangalore have dragged the city and the metro to the courts in an attempt to get them to preserve one of India's most celebrated gardens. However, it seems that thus far, their attempts have not been very successful, though they are not giving up the fight easily.