It may sound odd, but going by the confidence of officials, it appears to be true. “The first two sectors of the Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited will not affect our occupancy ratio,” is what Telangana State Road Transport Corporation’s Executive Director-Greater Hyderabad Zone (GHZ), A. Purushotham has to assert!
As of now, the HMRL is gearing up to start the services between Nagole and Miyapur (17 km) — Miyapur-Ameerpet in Corridor One (L.B. Nagar-Miyapur) and Nagole-Ameerpet (13 km) in Corridor Three (Nagole-Shilparamam/Raidurg) sectors – any time between the second week of November and January this year.
“We do agree that the relative comfort of the metro rail and the reduced travel time to one-third when compared to the bus travel are attractive propositions,” the officer avers.
He added, however, that unlike the metro rail’s rather straight, point-to-point operations, the TSRTC’s services were only criss-cross, connecting nearby colonies of upto a 5 km distance from the nearest metro rail station.
Consider this. The normal time for bus travel between Nagole and Miyapur is easily 90 to 100 minutes going by the peak-hour traffic. In contrast, it will take just between 35 and 40 minutes in the metro rail.
If this is not an incentive enough, what else could be? Mr. Purushotham argues that TSRTC’s occupancy per se would not go down. “Logistically-speaking, for at least two-and-a-half years from now – the time it will take for the metro rail to run services on all three corridors – it will only entail redeployment of our buses to serve as vital links for passengers to reach the metro rail stations. Later, we will see,” he says.
As for the logistics of buses now being run in certain sectors, it is a whopping 940 schedules multiplied by at least six trips every single day between Nagole and Miyapur and 760 schedules between Nagole and Secunderabad. “We have to reschedule them. We understand that and we are ready with our plans,” says the ED-GHZ.
No new buses
Is the TSRTC contemplating on buying new buses, including the mini-buses, to effectively operate them as link services to the metro rail stations? “Not at all. We have enough buses in our fleet and all that we need to do is to redeploy them and run additional trips as the trip distance will be shorter,” says TSRTC MD G.V. Ramana Rao.
But won’t the demand for services connecting the metro rail stations to nearby colonies necessitate more buses? “Sure it will, but as of now, we are not even considering buying new buses for this specific purpose. The Hyderabad Metro Rail Project is indeed prestigious, but suffice it to say that the TSRTC’s Greater Hyderabad Zone is fully geared up to fill the gap, as in the link services, for the convenience of the people needing to reach the station from and to their homes,” he stated.
Mr. Ramana Rao said as early as in April this year, the officials had conducted a fortnight-long survey to ascertain the ground realities and assess the possible demand.
