On the very first day, thousands of passengers commuted through Ameerpet’s interlinking station that connected the red and blue lines of the City’s Metro Rail.
Each train which carried over 930 passengers that reached the station at a frequency of 15 minutes, brought in a sea of people onto the first and second floors of the sprawling three-storied building.
While concourse or the sprawling ground floor had the ticketing section, the Miyapur-L.B. Nagar red line which is now functional only till Ameerpet, occupied the second floor, which has an open roof. Nagole to Raidurg (Hi-Tech City) blue line occupied the first floor. The station which is 142-meter long and 40-metre wide is one of the biggest Metro stations in the country.
“We are yet to determine how many among the nearly 1 lakh passengers will be regular commuters who will continue to use the rail. Most people who boarded the metro today took to it to satiate their curiosity,” M.P Naidu, a senior official from the engineering division told The Hindu on Wednesday.
As per L&T Metro Rail-Hyderabad’s calculations, the interlinking station is expected to be used by 40,000 commuters on a regular day. The station can accommodate 6,000 passengers at any given time.
First-time travellers
In the morning hours, many passengers who wanted to travel throughout the 30-km stretch (Miyapur-Ameerpet-Nagole) which is currently functional, found it hard to change from one line to the other. “After reaching Ameerpet from Mettuguda I waited on the same platform for the next train to KPHB. But that train arrived in the second floor. I had to catch the one that came later,” said L. Venkatesh Murthy, a software professional who works in Kukatpally.
Wrong directions given by some ticketing staff also contributed to the chaos at the interlinking station. “I asked the counter staff at Miyapur to issue a ticket to Nagole. They sold me a ticket to Ameerpet and said I will have to get down and buy another ride to Nagole,” said B. Dhillishwar a commuter at Ameerpet.
Single ticket rule
As per Metro Rail rules, passengers can buy a single ticket even when there is an inter-linkage at Ameerpet.
Krishna Kumar, a German language specialist who rode the metro several times during the day said “We need simpler instruction charts and people should follow rules strictly.” Throughout the day L&T staff present at the station were seen instructing several passengers in person. Ameerpet metro station had eight functional elevators and 16 escalators and stairs on the first day.
