Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) authorities have been running four trains between the newly-opened Corridor Two — Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) to Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) from 6.30 a.m. to 11.30 p.m. for the past three days and the daily passenger count has been about 34,000 as observed on Monday.
With this, the daily ridership across the three corridors, including Corridor One (Red Line) L.B.Nagar-Miyapur and Corridor Two (Blue Line) Nagole-Raidurg along with the Green Line has touched 4.75 lakh, according to HMR managing director N.V.S. Reddy on Tuesday.
In the lead
Ameerpet interchange station between Corridor One and Corridor Three continues to be in the top spot with 26,000 passenger count daily followed by L.B. Nagar at 24,000; Raidurg at 22,000; Miyapur at 19,000; KPHB at 17,000 and Secunderabad East at 15,000.
Green Corridor’s JBS-Parade Grounds saw 14,894 passengers, followed by MGBS (8,330), RTC Crossroads (2,015), Narayanagaguda (1,781), Chikkadpally (1,628), Gandhi Hospital (1,418), Secunderabad West (1,396), Musheerabad (1,287) and Sultan Bazar (1,144).
After Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao launched the final metro rail stretch of 11 km last Friday, passengers have been making use of the facility from Saturday to reach either of the two main bus stations or as a connecting service to hop onto metro trains towards Raidurg-HiTec City from JBS-Parade Grounds joint stations or the interchange station of MGBS to reach L.B. Nagar and Miyapur.
“It’s still too early for us to estimate the passenger patronage but considering the dense residential and commercial areas the line covers on a straight line, we expect the numbers to pick up in a month or so,” he said. Nine three-set trains have been exclusively earmarked for Corridor Two of the total 57 train sets of three coaches each with carrying capacity of about 900 passengers.
The remaining trains are to be pressed into service once the passenger count rises and the frequency goes up from the current nine minutes a train to four-six minutes as it happens in other sections during the peak hours especially, senior officials said.
Street-level infra
For now, metro rail authorities are using platform no.1 of JBS station for both entry and exit with the train moving from the same platform in both directions. Street-level infrastructure underneath the nine stations, however, is far from over. HMR has been forced to curtail the length of works from 500 metres to about 200 metres on both sides to build footpaths, signage, seating, entry/exits on all four sides at several of them, due to fund crunch.
But, senior officials informed that first and last mile connectivity to nearby areas from the stations through private vehicles during peak hours as is provided in other sections will commence shortly.
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