A day after the Hyderabad Metro Rail service chugged into the HiTec City, the authorities have decided to go for bigger and additional baggage scanners at this station to handle big bags containing laptops and other gadgets.
“There was a slowdown in the baggage scanners on Wednesday night when a woman IT employee walked in with a big bag containing laptop and other gadgets. So we decided to take immediate steps to prevent such an incident from happening again once the crowd picks up,” said HMR managing director N.V.S. Reddy here on Thursday.
Bags and wallets are being screened at the entry level of every metro station through scanners, while security personnel physically frisk passengers with a hand-held metal detector.
The MD explained that the inaugural date of March 20 (at 4 p.m.) was ‘deliberately’ chosen so that after a few hours of operations, it would be a long holiday period starting from Holi. This would give the HiTec City and Durgamcheruvu station staff to get used to handle the crowd from the next week.
With regard to an additional train being stationed at Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet, Mr. Reddy dismissed rumours of any ‘breakdown’. He pointed out that the project across the 72-km stretch being built in three corridors has three ‘pocket lines’.
These are similar to the traditional rail ‘looplines’ at HPS (B) Ameerpet and Bhoiguda. They can be identified by the ‘U’ shaped piers to an extent of 200 metres, slightly away from the main track for moving any train that develops a snag to the side, so that there is no disruption of normal services.
In the present case, to match the frequency of Corridor I (L.B. Nagar to Miyapur) and part of Corridor III (Nagole-Ameerpet) with the HiTec City stretch, an additional train is being introduced in Ameerpet for every two trains. This train is parked in the pocket line opposite HPS. “With the introduction of an additional train, we are now able to get 7 minute frequency in Ameerpet- HiTec City stretch from the earlier 9-12 minutes,” added Mr. Reddy.
