The Minister for IT, Municipal Administraion & Industries K.T. Rama Rao on Monday announced the formation of a Special Task Force team drawn from TSRTC, South Central Railway, GHMC, Setwin along with the Municipal and Transport Departments Secretaries and Hyderabad Metro Rail MD to suggest measures to strengthen the public transport systems.
At a meeting held with the top officials from these departments and Transport Minister P. Mahender Reddy at the Metro Rail Bhavan, the Minister said the Task Force will also be studying the emerging technologies in improving the public transport system and in providing the first and last mile connectivity to the urban commuters from the metro rail stations.
Calling for a coordination among the various public transport bodies including RTC, HMR, SCR, Mr. Rama Rao said they should desist from competing with each other. Rather, the effort should be to combine forces to provide a seamless travel facility to the commuters with emphasis on running vehicles on electric power.
No delay
With majority of first phase of the metro rail being built across three corridors scheduled to be over within a year or less, the public transport agencies should start planning connectivity to and from the metro stations without any further delay, he said.
The Minister said the vehicles being provided for the first and last mile connectivity from colonies to the metro stations should be totally electric-powered. To this end, charging stations will be provided at the RTC depots and the metro rail stations. The Task Force has been given two months time to come out with a preliminary set of recommendations.
Apart from these issues, Mr. Rama Rao also discussed the status of the proposed multi-level parking complexes in different parts of the twin cites and wanted modern practices adopted in other countries to be studied for implementation here with necessary changes suiting the local conditions
