Banner lands on power line, halts Metro for half-an-hour

Strong winds on Sunday evening caused a banner from a hoarding to fall on to the overhead electric wires of Hyderabad Metro Rail between Begumpet and Paradise stations, thereby disrupting services for around 30 minutes from 3.35 pm  to 4 pm. Commuters were left stranded on their respective trains during this period.

The Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) blamed the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for not taking action despite receiving the list of the 95 hoardings in metro corridors to be pulled down.

Passengers had to face a tough time during the breakdown. A few passengers alleged that there was no information about the delay in services and the staff, too, seemed clueless about it. Reportedly, the staff at the metro stations continued to issue tickets without informing passengers about the snag. Overcrowding was reported at all stations, which made the situation worse.

Despite having an exclusive electricity line, metro authorities have been interrupting services quite frequently. The authorities claimed the fail-safe system used by the HMRL compels them to shut down operations in case of



damage or failure of any component. Further, since most components used in the system happen to be imported, they do not deliver as expected in Indian conditions. They even alleged that despite specifically requesting the GHMC to take down all the hoardings from the metro corridors, the civic body had failed to cooperate.

“A flexi fell on the overhead electric wires between Begumpet and Paradise sections. However, the SC along with other staff cleared it as soon as they could, and services were affected for not over 20 minutes,” the HMRL managing director N.V.S Reddy said.

“It is a cumbersome and dangerous task to clear flexis from overhead electric wires. What we are talking about here is high tension (25 kV) wires, so the task entails turning off the power in a section of about 5 km. We have identified about 95 hoardings/uni-poles in metro corridors which we have already asked the GHMC to remove/relocate.

However, this is not the first time this has happened in Hyderabad. Similar incidents have taken place over five times already this year,” he said.