KTR asks for more coaches for Hyderabad Metro

TRS working president and former Minister KT Rama Rao asked officials to discuss the need for increasing the number of coaches in the Hyderabad Metro and increase the frequency of trains as early as possible.

Asking Municipal Administration and Urban Development Principal Secretary Arvind Kumar to initiate measures for augmenting the services, Rao tweeted: “Efficient and robust public transportation is the only solution to address the growing traffic in our cities”.

Earlier, a Twitter user, Sainathan Gorige, tweeted to Rao about the need for increasing the number of coaches. Sharing a picture of the crowd on the Ameerpet-Hitec City route, he tweeted: “Need to use four coaches from Nagole-Hitec City route”.

A few other Twitter users too demanded increase in the number of coaches, besides revising the frequency. Responding to Rama Rao, Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) Managing Director NVS Reddy tweeted that measures were being taken to address the problem and that an additional train was introduced recently with some “technical tweaking”. “This problem will be there till July-end due to ‘twin single line’ working between Jubilee Hills Check-post and



Hitec City stations, and safety restrictions imposed by Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS),” Reddy said.

Under this system, trains are brought to their respective ‘up’ and ‘down’-line directions by making use of the crossover line at Jubilee Hills Check-post. HMRL is also working on launching the services till Raidurg (Mindspace junction) by August first week or complete the reversal facility at Hotel Trident at the earliest, and a call be taken accordingly.

On the possibilities of increasing the coaches, the HMRL MD said currently, the Hyderabad Metro was being operated with a three-car train. Coaches could not be added easily since there were a lot of signaling, train control system specifications and algorithms involved. Trains are intelligence-based and are remotely operated, he explained.

It will be made six-coach trains after exhausting the maximum feasible frequency. Currently, trains are being operated with a trip frequency of 7.5 minutes and at eight trains per hour. The frequency will be increased after restoring the normal train working system between Ameerpet and Hitec City stations, he said.