Hyderabad Metro Rail is going to be a ‘high density’ project in terms of carrying capacity of passengers per hour. It means that when operational the elevated rail system can carry up to 60,000 Passengers Per Hour in Peak Direction (PPHPD).
Initially the plan was to build a ‘medium density’ project which entails a carrying capacity of 40,000 passengers per hour per direction as per the Delhi Metro prepared detailed project report. Later, it was decided to scale up during the construction stage itself by increasing the axle load for hauling more people considering the rising traffic density across the three routes.
“Little can be done once the viaduct and piers are constructed so we decided to increase the axle load when the work began,” explains Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy. While the three car trains will have a carrying capacity of 1,000 passengers per trip, six car trains later will have carrying capacity of 6,000 passengers with a frequency of five minutes a train.
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The metro rail is designed and built in such a manner that the frequency of the trains will be one every five minutes and can be brought down to a service every three minutes or even a high of two minutes. It indicates that 30 trains can be run within an hour and close to 300 train services can be run in a day on a single corridor.
“We have projected a ridership of 15 lakh passengers a day on the three corridors after operations commence, and this is likely to escalate to 25 lakh in 10 years time during the bidding stage itself. All the bidders did their own independent studies and did not challenge the projected passengers figure,” he points out.
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Making it a high density train also alludes that the depots and stations will become the hubs of activity, more so because the metro rail corridors are in the heart of the twin cities with dense traffic. This can easily help reduce the load on the roads, he reasons, while pointing out that 30 per cent of daily trips by commuters were “avoidable” according to traffic studies.
Mr. Reddy also states that travel by this mode could well be the cheapest, efficient and fastest mode of transport as the government has already frozen ticket tariffs for basic fares (see graphic).
Concessionaire Larsen & Toubro Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) is permitted to raise basic fares by five per cent annually and anything above, the government approval is a must.
However, during the peak four hours in the day, the tickets will be priced 25 per cent extra, he added.