Hyderabad:
London Mayor Boris Johnson on Wednesday evinced interest in areas of infrastructure, urban development and entertainment, among others, for cooperation between Hyderabad and the UK city.
"I congratulate the ministers and the Mayor for their vision for Hyderabad. It was exciting to learn about the Metro (rail) you are going to construct here, the ambition for Hyderabad in infrastructure. But also the social improvements that the government wants to see and we are very excited," he said.
Johnson, who is leading a business delegtion to India, was speaking to reporters after an interactive session with ministers and senior officials of Andhra Pradesh government.
"I think it was a fruitful conversation about what London and Hyderabad can do to cooperate in all sorts of areas, in infrastructure, in cleaning of water (in water bodies), the entertainment sector, where there was an interesting discussion about attractions of Hyderabad, may be wanting to produce a new 'Hyderabad Eye' like the London Eye or something like that.
"We have some experience in London about these kinds of ideas. We would love to participate in these discussions," he said.
During the session, senior officials of infrastructure and investment, municipal administration and industries made presentations to the London Mayor and his delegation.
They briefed about the ongoing projects in Andhra Pradesh in areas of ports, aviation, power, Hyderabad Metro Rail, cleaning of Hussain Sagar and other lakes and also Musi river in Hyderabad.
Johnson also made enquiries and spoke about various aspects of ongoing Hyderabad Metro Rail project, the tube system in London, land acquisition and finance aspects of infrastructure projects, the Olympic Park in London among others.
Andhra Pradesh Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development M Maheedhar Reddy said the visiting delegation expressed interest in cooperating with the state government in improving mass transportation in Hyderabad.
"They have come here to learn about Hyderabad development. They have shown interest in metro rail system.
They are very much impressed by Outer Ring Road (in Hyderabad) and the peripheral roads. We talked about it even before this meeting. They said Hyderabad is moving ahead.
"They said they will give cooperation to improve the transportation system in Hyderabad. That will help us in improving various aspects of transportation system," he said.
Hyderabad Mayor Majid Hussain said the visit of his London counterpart is a beginning of engagement between the two cities and it will lead to benefiting the Andhra Pradesh capital.