If the ongoing ‘tussle’ between South Central Railway (SCR) and State government over release of funds for completing multi-modal transport system (MMTS) Phase II works was again highlighted during the recent visit of Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, the ‘other’ suburban services run by the railways are being quietly withdrawn.
SCR also runs a suburban rail system through DEMUs or Diesel Electric Multiple Units, from Secunderabad railway station to connect to Bolarum (14 km), Medchal (28 km) and Manoharabad (41 km) for decades. However, over the past few years, the services are being curtailed gradually and six months ago, they were reduced to just nine a day with no service at all on Fridays!
‘Trains shifted’
“Services have been truncated because there is poor patronage with not even 200 passengers using it. We have shifted trains to other sections,” disclose senior railway officials, pleading anonymity.
In the past six months, a single train is going from Secunderabad and returning touching up to Manoharabad “without proper timings”. It is of no use to anyone “save for vagabonds and beggars”, allege citizens living from across these stations.
Suburban train services on Bolarum-Secunderabad-Falaknuma sections can be traced back to Nizam Railways and on the metre gauge. It also saw steam engines and diesel engines along with conversion into broad gauge when the reduction of trains began from 45 to 26 to 13, nine and now one. The fall in passenger traffic is even more dramatic — from 10,000 a day to 5,000 and now just 200!
Highs and lows
It is a mystery why MMTS Phase I between Falaknuma-Secunderabad-Hyderabad-Lingampally, despite irregular schedules, carries upto 1.70 lakh passengers a day, but there are no takers for these services when roads to and from these stations towards the central parts of the twin cities are choked with traffic during peak hours.
“We have not done any analysis about the reasons for the low patronage,” confess senior railway officials. “There are no trains during peak morning or evening hours, and erratic timings make regular students, employees and petty businessmen hit the road,” claims Noor Ahmed Ali, general secretary, Suburban Train and Bus Travellers’ Association.
Now, a single service starts from Secunderabad station towards Manoharabad via Bolarun and Medchal at 6.20 a.m., towards Medchal only at 10.31 a.m. and 4.55 p.m. and towards Bolarum only at 8.55 p.m. Towards Secunderabad station, the service is available at 9.56 a.m., 12.26 p.m., 3.56 p.m. and 8.15 p.m.
Grievance unheard
Passengers from Medchal, Bolarum and Malakjgiri wanted to meet SCR General Manager Gajanan Mallya during his recent inspection tour of the section to represent their woes. However, as he got delayed in other inspections, his special train sped past them at the stations, much to their disappointment.
The only hope for these passengers, as per the railway officials’ contention, is praying for speedy completion of MMTS Phase II as doubling, electrification and even stations works are in various stages of construction on this suburban railway route.
