Signal snags slow down Hyderabad Metro Rail

Hyderabad: Technical glitches like faulty doors, signal issues and maintenance problems have led to delays in Hyderabad Metro Rail services. Since one month after its launch, regular commuters say that the services are delayed to even 20 minutes at times.  Apparently, the train timings are not regularly announced and a time-table is not pieced together yet. 

A senior L&T officer, on condition of anonymity, said, “In the first one week, the ground staff was anxious to  handle a sea of people and an intensive training programme was conducted.” At the Ameerpet station, the technical staff was employed for the first 10 days to look after the doors as the trains were full.  A senior staff of L&T Hyderabad Metro Rail and a few operating officers stated that they have been instructed to stay at the Ameerpet station to repair technical snags and for safety reasons. 

Regarding the delay, a senior officer said, “We have had instances when parents were busy in taking selfies and children running around the platform. These manual problems caused safety concerns and affected the movement of the trains. There is lot of co-ordination and checking before the train leaves the platform.”

A week ago, a passenger vomited on the train and the sanitation staff was called in at the next station. While the cleaning works were on, the movement of trains on the complete stretch was hit. There have been signalling issues on the 30-km stretch with 24 stations. Due to this, the trains were stationed between two stations many times.

Hyderabad Metro Rail in a statement said that they have not got any major complaints about delays. The network is stabilising and passengers are getting used to it. Currently, the trains are run at a frequency of eight minutes on the Miyapur-Ameerpet section. The Nagole- Ameerpet section has a frequency of 15 minutes. A time-table will be made available soon.

Metro not for short distance 

While more than one lakh people are patronising Metro Rail on  a daily basis, there is no crowd at Rasoolpura, Prakash Nagar, Secunderabad, Mettuguda, ESI Hospital, Moosapet and Bharat Nagar stations. 

According to sources,  early assessment studies has shown that people were opting for Metro Rail at Rasoolpura, Begumpet, Secunderabad, Habsiguda and other smaller stations. But in the present 30km stretch, large crowds are seen only at Miyapur, Ameerpet, Uppal and Nagole stations. The stretch from Ameerpet to Miyapur is having good footfalls compared with the Ameerpet—Nagole stretch. 

A senior officer said, “Passengers will increase at smaller stations when the Hitec City route opens up. We are getting a lot of queries about it.”The smaller stations which are in high-density areas are seeing minimal crowd which means that Metro is not preferred for short-distance travel.