HYDERABAD: After the “May I Help You” personnel deployed at all stations of newly launched Hyderabad Metro Rail, it appears crowd management requires a little harder push, at times. Incidentally, the L&T MRHL has hired close to 30 bouncers and they are making their presence felt at stations.
A footfall of abour 1.5 lakh commuters have been recorded on the metro on weekends even though on weekdays, the footfall appears to have fallen to around 60,000 on an average.
Dressed in black with TRIG Guard Force limited green bibs, the bouncers are located at Miyapur, Nagole and Ameerpet interchange station. Their task is to primarily monitor and manage crowd at the stations.
“We are facing manpower crunch, especially, when it comes to controlling crowd. Its getting haywire on weekends for which we got them in. There are 10 each at Miyapur and Nagole station and 12 at Ameerpet,” said a Station Control on condition of anonymity.
Interestingly, several commuters expressed happiness over crowd being ‘maintained’ at the metro stations. “We had a seamless experience walking in and out of the Metro car which was not evident earlier,” said Mahesh Kumar, who arrived with his family at Ameerpet Metro station. “We hired them as a stop-gap arrangement to manage the heavy crowd pouring in during weekends. They will be soon withdrawn once the system settles,” said an official of L&TMRHL.