Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) and L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) are set to complete the entire Corridor Three (Nagole to Raidurg), about 1.5 km from Raidurg or about 29 km, in all respects by July to put in place normal metro rail operations with better frequency.
At present, metro rail services are being run from Nagole to Ameerpet normally and from there to HiTec City, the operations are run on twin tracks since the line up to Raidurg is still under construction and the ‘reversal’ at the HiTec City which would have facilitated normal service was not ready.
HMR managing director N.V.S. Reddy said on Monday while the ‘reversal’ will be ready soon, considering the logistics involved in running an extra train from Begumpet metro station towards HiTec City to keep up the frequency, discussions are on to make the entire route ready for more efficient services till the Mindspace Junction where the terminal station is getting completed.
EV charging
Earlier, Municipal Administration & Urban Development Secretary Arvind Kumar inaugurated an electric vehicle charging facility at Begumpet, the eighth across various metro rail stations by Fortum, a Finnish government-owned company which has an agreement with HMR to establish electric vehicle (EV) charging network across the project.
“This is a great step by HMR and within an hour, a car can be charged while citizens travel by the metro. Depending on the demand, we can step up the facility towards encouraging non-polluting electric vehicles,” said Mr. Kumar, who also threw open an automatic parking facility by ‘Park Hyderabad’ at the station.
Mr. Reddy said EV services are currently free and charges to be decided soon could be ₹15 per unit for charging 40-60 minutes for a vehicle for travel up to 140 km.
This comes to ₹1-1.80 per km and the rates could further reduce with more demand.
Fortum has 40 EV stations across the country, 36 in the capital (26 at metro rail stations itself) whereas there are just two each at Delhi and Mumbai.
Parking plan
Integrated smart parking system operational at 24 stations between Miyapur-Ameerpet-Nagole will soon be available on a mobile app providing real time information about parking availability for bikes and cars for about 4,000 two-wheeler bays and 250 four-wheeler bays from 6.30 a.m. to 10.30 p.m.
Digital payments can be made and it will be tied up with L&TMRH run parking bays, he said.
While regular parking charges are ₹3 for bikes and ₹8 for cars per hour, under the Park Hyderabad Citizen mobile app, the charges will be ₹5 for two hours to ₹30 for 15 hours.
