Hyderabad Metro rakes in Rs 1.2 crore on debut day ride

While close to 2 lakh people took the train on the first day, the numbers dropped sharply on Thursday; support staff missing on Thursday
People wait in the queue at the ticket counter in SR Nagar Metro station, in Hyderabad | SAYANTAN GHOSH
People wait in the queue at the ticket counter in SR Nagar Metro station, in Hyderabad | SAYANTAN GHOSH

HYDERABAD:  IT was a blockbuster opening day for the Hyderabad Metro with the service raking in over Rs 1.2 crore in collection and recording a footfall close to 2 lakh. The officials were not expecting similar collection in revenues on Thursday, the second day of operation. “There has been a considerable drop in footfall on day two,” said a senior official. The Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited expects to break even in five to six years. The cost of the project zoomed from the initial estimate of Rs 14,100 crore to a whopping Rs 19,000 crore by the time it was launched. Now, to cover the costs of operation and maintenance, officials are mulling fines on commuters for certain violations. “But these will be imposed only after all station are ready,” they said.

Currently, authorities are imposing a extra charge of Rs 20 on anyone staying in a station beyond the stipulated 120 minutes. Telangana Director General of Police M Mahendar Reddy inspected the security features at Ameerpet Interchange station on Thursday. “Public should not have any doubts on safety or security while on travel,” he said. “There would be no untoward incidents and any minor issues can be reported immediately using modern technologies that have been installed. As many as 600 police personnel have been provided by the police department to beef up security for the new transportation system, along with private security installed by HMRL.

HMRL managing director, NVS Reddy said that security has been put in place as per the Central government rules. As many as 2,100 police personal would be put in place for three corridors covering 72 km apart, he said. He added that every movement inside the Metro stations and trains were being tracked. “As many as 40,000 selfies were taken on smartphones on the inaugural day,” he claimed. As footfall saw a drastic fall on Thursday, HMRL staff sporting green T-shirts emblazoned with ‘May I Help You’ went missing.

They were replaced with batonwielding private security guards who seems comparatively untrained in crowd management tehiniques. This was the case in most Metro stations checked out by Express between 3 pm and 6 pm. The guards, compared to HMRL staff, were less hospitable. Signboards were fixed at Ameerpet Interchange station for those crossing lines. However, with no Metro staff to guide, most, if not all, passengers found the navigation between different corridors difficult.

As Metro launched, RTC revenue rose 3% Telangana State Road Transport Corporation’s city region recorded a rise in its revenue by 3 per cent on Wednesday, the day metro rail services were launched in the city.“Our earnings are intact and we have no loss of revenue,” said A Purushotham, TSRTC executive director for Hyderabad. The corporation calculated their earnings per day and the bus occupancy ratio and compared the data with their Tuesday earnings. “At present, we serve 33 lakh commuters and, with the launch of metro rail, we hope to scale up our service to 37 lakh.

”Pranksters press ‘stop’ button, bring train to abrupt, jerky halt

Pulling the emergency lever to stop a train for fun would normally attract a Rs 1,000 fine or imprisonment up to one year but with no such warning, signs, the Metro trains made multiple unscheduled emergency-stops on both days of its operation. On Thursday, a red line train made an unscheduled stop between ESI Hospital and Erragadda. It raised the curiosity of commuters but no announcement or clarification from the authorities was forthcoming. The train made another sudden jerky stop for a few seconds between Moosapet and Balanagar. This time train operator announced over the public address system, “Please! Don’t touch or press the emergency button. It is only for an emergency.”

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