The South Central Railway (SCR) did spring a surprise earlier this month by announcing the launch of MMTS Phase-II first-stage operations, albeit on a low key, by opening the 5.75-km Ramachandrapuram to Tellapur route allowing suburban trains to be extended from Falaknuma to Lingampally.
The official release did not mention ‘phase-II’, and merely stated that the two services would be run to and from R.C. Puram during nights and early mornings. The line, the first route to be built under the second phase, was completed months ago and it even obtained clearance from the Commissioner of Rail Safety (CRS), but the Railway Board nod was awaited before starting the operations.
Given the reluctance of Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to inaugurate such a small route, the Railway Board finally gave the green signal to run the trains on the route.
Also, nine modern trains with better seating, standing and cushioning have been waiting to be put into service at Moula Ali depot after completing the trial runs. There has also been an issue of terminating trains at Lingampally owing to infrastructure deficiency. Senior officials disclosed that the Secunderabad-Bolarum-Medchal (28 km) stretch too has been completed and the section can be opened only after finishing work on foot-over-bridges and recruiting staff.
Incidentally, the entire MMTS Phase-II was to be completed in December last, yet a small section opened for commercial operations six months later indicates the hurdles that the project has been facing since its inception.
“The most challenging work is ahead of us because of various road crossings. We have not stopped work, but without cooperation from the Telangana government in terms of funding or permissions on time, it is difficult to complete the project that could take another year. We have apprised the top officials of the situation and are hopeful of some forward movement,” says General Manager Gajanan Mallya.
The government owes about ₹450 crore and the SCR claims to have spent ₹580 crore, more than what it is supposed to be spent – ₹272 crore – as per the 2/3rds cost-sharing agreement. Hopes of getting funds from the government were raised when the then Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, K.T. Rama Rao, had reviewed the project with the then General Manager Vinod Kumar Yadav. But there has been no development in this regard ever since.
The SCR was even forced to put extension of trains up to Raigir, which the government had specifically requested to be put on the back-burner (see box). For now, the SCR officials are doing what they can by introducing 12-coach trains for phase-I operations between Hyderabad-Secunderabad-Lingampally-Falaknuma up to R.C. Puram, using a mix of four new and five old trains.
Noor, a former railway employee and general secretary of the Suburban Train and Bus Travellers’ Association, says, “We have requested the GM to begin MMTS trains from Secunderabad to Bolarum if not till Medchal to help scores of passengers get access to affordable and quick public transport system living in this side of the city as there are no trains during peak hours”.
While it is unknown if this would happen any time soon, there is a new demand for introducing air-conditioned coaches at least in first-class bogies of MMTS trains.
“With metro rail providing AC travel, commuters are wondering why first class passengers are not entitled to AC travel as the ticket price begins from ₹50,” says Vijay R. Krishnamurthy, an IT professional and an active member of MMTS Travellers’ Group.
“The Indian Railways introduced AC trains for suburban travel in Mumbai two years ago and there are no plans to introduce AC MMTS trains heer unless we get more funds,” says Mr. Mallya.
The frequency of trains can be improved only if long-distance trains are brought in by early morning and quick departures are ensured at dusk as same railway lines are used for all the trains, he adds.
With building additional lines being a long shot considering the cost of land acquisition, the only option could be to run MMTS trains at select hours, he feels, even as his officials have been tasked with checking the possibility of running an additional service during peak hours to and from Hi-Tec City that sees 75,000 passengers every day.
While the SCR is worried over not receiving assured funds from the government, the latter thinks the railways would anyway get the work done for its own infrastructure needs. Secondly, it thinks that the Central government would walk away with the credit for any railway project and thus the stalemate continues, according to Mr. Noor. His view is shared by officials too!
“Efficient and robust public transportation is the only solution to address the growing traffic in our cities,” tweeted KTR on Monday. While he was referring to metro rail services, it could well be made applicable to MMTS too.
