Hyderabad: Crammed ride in Metro gives harrowing time to commuters

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Metro has failed to add additional coaches despite the previous government asking its officials to lease out additional coaches to cope with passenger rush during peak hours. But that proposal lies only on paper.

Vexed with overcrowding Metro rail travellers have raised their hardships. They request the Hyderabad Metro officials to provide a permanent solution by adding extra coaches.According to sources, last year the Hyderabad Metro Rail decided to lease four rakes of three coaches each to augment the existing fleet to deal with heavy rush during peak hours, but due to unknown reasons it was not executed.

To provide relief to passengers, train frequency was increased to less than three minutes during peak hours. Even this did not work, as overcrowding had become normal day by day, especially on the LB Nagar-Miyapur corridor and Nagole-Raidurg route. Currently around 4.8 lakh to five lakh people are travelling daily. Passengers point out that Metro Rail services are a big boon for the twin cities, as right from the date of inception its utilization of the facility has grown rapidly.

But during peak hours, it has become a common sight to see coaches jam-packed. They fee that It will be better if the government increases the bogies during peak hours.

Says Robin, a Metro Rail traveller, “It is not a comfortable journey anymore; there is no place even to breathe on the trains, as what it used to be during the initial days. But travel in the Metro during peak hours is very hectic. Congestion in trains will reduce if HMR increases the coaches.”

According to Srinivas, an IT employee ,“Day by day rides on the Metro have drastically been increasing, but no steps are been taken to add extra coaches.

As a coach is reserved for women and half a coach for senior citizens, it is general commuters like us, who suffer the most. There is hardly any space to stand in a coach during morning hours. To overcome this there is an immediate need to increase the number of coaches.”