Hyderabad: Demand for regulation of MMTS services on Malkajgiri route gets louder

Malkajgiri: Plying of trains under MMTS second phase has been a long dream for citizens as last month trial runs were conducted on the tracks of Malkajgiri railway station.

Once again vexed with the slow pace of progress, the local residents and members of Suburban Train Travellers' Association demanded SCR to regulate MMTS train services at Malkajgiri railway station as soon as possible.

Locals alleged that the Hyderabad division of South Central Railway conducted trial runs of MMTS train at Malkajgiri railway station to introduce few trains in peak hours to mitigate the hardships of commuters facing since 2019 but no concrete measures are being taken yet.

"General public is unaware of the trials runs of MMTS trains at the Malkajgiri railway station. However, the Suburban Train Travelers Association assumes that LC gates, Divyang toilets, other basic amenities and staff for issuing tickets are main hurdles.

As Malkajgiri is one of the highly traffic offering locality, eliminating LC gates and providing basic infrastructure may consume much time which needs budget provision etc. Hence the Association suggests Divisional authorities to run MMTS trains from Umdanagar / Falaknuma to Malkajgiri via Sitaphalmandi chord line for time being till everything is settled to run trains up to Medchal," said Noor Ahmed, General Secretary for LT (long train) & MMTS.

"Around 20 express trains pass through the station, out of which only 10 trains stop here. Due to this, passengers are forced to opt for private transport by shelling out more fare for their entire journey.

An immediate action needs on this issue to provide better and cheap public transport system to weaker sections members," said L Mohan, a resident of Malkajgiri

"The Centre blames State government for the delay in completion of MMTS phase-2 project. It appears State government is not interested in the MMTS corridors of Secunderabad-Medchal & Moula Ali-Sanathnagar. About Rs 500 crore of State government share of funds towards MMTS phase- 2 is pending since several years.

Railway completed Secunderabad-Medchal works including couple of trial runs and waiting for State government share of funds to introduce the MMTS services in this corridor.

It is high time that Centre and State government must come together and sort out the issue of funds and other issues to introduce MMTS services in these corridors without any further delay," said B T Srinivasan, General Secretary, United Federation of Residents' Welfare Associations ( U-FERWAS)

A senior official of SCR, on condition of anonymity, said," If any works are done to get a new service, new trains should be brought into service. Already railways has spent more than its estimated budget. We are in continuous touch with the State government so that we can start the pending works of MMTS phase 2."