Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) authorities on Monday decided to widen footpaths to an additional 15 to 20 feet, acquiring space from the adjacent properties to provide more space for disbursal of passengers when they are getting into or out of the metro stations onto the road between the inaugural route of Nagole to Miyapur.
“We will not hesitate to change the designs for skywalks at important stations and those on narrow roads. We will go for land acquisition if necessary so that there is sufficient space for passengers to move about, especially during heavy rains and special occasions,” said HMR Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy.
The decision was taken during an inspection of the ongoing ‘urban rejuvenation’ works underway between Ameerpet and Miyapur (13 km) of Corridor One - Miyapur to L.B. Nagar. It comes in the light of the recent mishap at a suburban railway station in Mumbai where many lives were lost in a stampede.
Disturbed at the incident, Mr. Reddy called upon his engineers to concentrate on the street level works for further improvement to the existing designs for wider footpaths, better planned bus bays, auto bays, etc. to make the metro rail travel more safer with uniform distribution of crowds and better utilisation of available space.
Urban Rejuvenation works at each of the 30-odd stations from Nagole to Miyapur across the two corridors cover an area of about 700 metres. These will be divided into three zones with the main station area of 220 metres to be completed before the metro rail inauguration next month.
A railing separating the entry-exit points and the main road will be provided in the main station area to prevent passengers coming into the main carriage way. Toilets are to be diagonally opposite on both ends of the metro station while all electrical installations will have underground cable enabling.
The MD wanted 15-foot strip from Saradhi Studio and adjacent timber depots to be acquired to provide better passenger movement, increase kerb heights, ramps for footpaths at a few stations, grills for the open stormwater drain, covering them at few places, removing electric poles and other equipment at various sites, expedite completion of service roads at Kukatpally and so on.
The 3 lakh square feet of public space created at Miyapur terminal station is to be utilised for better passenger amenities. Encroachments on the roadsides should be removed along with construction debris near Maitrivanam, Ameerpet, Kukatpally, JNTU, etc.
