Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR), which will be completing five years of operations this month end, seems to be showing signs of wear and tear more often with yet another technical snag disrupting operations across one of the two main routes of Red Line or Corridor One — Miyapur to L.B. Nagar on Friday. This is the second such incident in the last two days.
The morning peak hours commuters had a jolt when the train proceeding towards Miyapur from L.B. Nagar began to crawl and had even stopped for about 20 minutes or so at Lakdikapul metro station. This led to a cascading effect with trains on either side of the corridor too slowing down or being halted in a few stations like Ameerpet, Khairatabad and others.
Passengers inside these trains informed there was an announcement about a technical snag and it would be rectified soon much to their relief unlike a few occasions earlier when no announcements were forthcoming during disruptions leaving them confused confined as they are in coaches bereft of air-conditioning.
Sudden halts have become a common occurrence as services on both sides on the other popular line — Blue Line or Corridor Three between Nagole and Raidurg stopped at Prakashnagar metro station for a good 10 minutes with announcements apologising for the delay with the doors open on Thursday evening, disclosed regular riders and this went unreported.
Both L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) officials and Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) officials kept mum about the ‘snag’ till late in the evening. “There was a signalling issue near Lakidikapul affecting metro services between Punjagutta–MGBS section, which was rectified in about 20 minutes, and normal operations were resumed,” claimed metro officials, later.
Trains moving slowly at particular stretches near Nampally, Malakpet, Begumpet and few other places are also being experienced quite often and loud noises when taking a curve by the passengers. “These things are common in any metro train transport system and whenever we receive any complaint, we are sharing them with L&T Metro for taking remedial action,” informed metro rail officials.