Hyderabad: The Metro Rail stalled for 50 minutes on the Ameerpet-Paradise stretch on Tuesday evening, leaving commuters fuming. Those in a hurry found there were few RTC buses, and the cab fares had zoomed. All stations on the line were jam-packed.
Sources alleged that the latest outage was caused by the underperforming cabling system.
Passenger Kallam Amarnath Reddy who was stuck at the Ameerpet station said it was not a surprise as services had similarly stopped 10 times in the past few months. What was surprising was the duration of the disruption, he said.
“I felt the heat of the RTC strike. Taking advantage of few RTC buses on the roads, cab prices surged by 200 per cent. From `200, the fare to reach Parade Ground touched `510,” Mr Reddy said.
“No HMRL official was ready to provide information about the glitch and arrival of the next train. The staff was checking the tracks and the cabling system using torches. With no trains running for over 50 minutes, the station became jam-packed with hundreds of commuters”, said Mr Jason Cyril, a commuter.
Explaining why the interruption occurred, HMRL managing director N.V.S Reddy said the pantograph of a train, which draws power from the overhead electrical traction system, got entangled with cables between Begumpet and Ameerpet. He said trains ran on the other line.
Mr Reddy said a huge crowd of passengers had got stuck at various stations and the priority was to run trains and clear the rush.
Highly placed sources in signalling and telecommunication said that the cabling was under-designed, which is the cause of frequent interruptions. The service would face similar problems if the system was not rectified. “The cabling system is not in compliance with the speed and other other parameters,” he said.
