The Suburban Train & Bus Travellers Association has appealed to the public representatives of the State to ensure that the Ministry of Railways provides adequate resources towards completion of long pending projects especially expediting the MMTS phase-II for the city in the forthcoming railway budget.
Association members – A.V. Swamy, Noor, Krishna Rao and others -- lamented that the current suburban and MMTS phase one services were being truncated putting scores of travellers to inconvenience.
“If local trains are run on time and with better frequency, there will be more patronage,” they said.
MMTS trains from Bolarum to Hyderabad and Lingampally were discontinued and were being terminated at Secunderabad or at Kacheguda/Falaknuma under the guise of track repair works at few places en route.
Due to irregular running of Bolarum-Secunderabad-Sitaphalmandi local trains, many passengers were also missing connecting trains, they said.
While welcoming the railway authorities in handing over the MMTS construction work to Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, the association urged the body to give top priority to complete the electrification work between Malkajgiri-Bolarum double line section.
Suggestion
The association members also had a suggestion for the South Central Railway (SCR) authorities.
South bound trains like the Jaipur-Mysore Express and Amaravati Express going via the chord line without touching Secunderabad could easily stop at Malkajgiri.
“In fact, SCR can consider making Malkajgiri as the second passenger rail terminal for Hyderabad division since vast land was available and it was just four kilometres away from Secunderabad station.
The other alternative is to develop a terminal at North Lalaguda in the place of the dilapidated railway quarters.
The area can easily accommodate 12-15 platforms similar to Chennai and Mumbai central stations,” they added.
