For 68-year-old G.V. Rao, Hyderabad’s Multi-Modal Transport System (MMTS) has always been the fastest and most economical way to travel through the city and suburbs. So, when he and his family had to catch a late-night train to Bengaluru from Kacheguda station, one of the three terminal railway stations in the city, they decided to hop on the suburban rail system and avoid road traffic for a smooth start to their journey. But when they reached the Lingampally station, about 4 km from their home, to get to Kacheguda, they were told the service had been cancelled that evening. Without wasting any time, they took a bus to Koti and then an autorickshaw from there to reach Kacheguda. Instead of a half-hour direct train journey, it took them 1.5 hours to reach their destination, 30 km away.
However, as soon as they entered the station, they were surprised to see an MMTS local from Lingampally trudging in! “I was stunned that even the railway staff did not know if and when the local trains are run,” recalls Rao, a resident of Tellapur area and retired private company employee.
IIT-Chennai engineer and Lingampally resident Allabaksh Naikodi (61) has been using MMTS services, operated by the South Central Railway (SCR), since their introduction in August 2003. He had planned an outing with his children to the Tank Bund stretch by the Hussainsagar lake over the weekend, but was forced to return home disappointed. Upon reaching the Lingampally station, he learnt that the train to Necklace Road, the nearest station to Tank Bund, would not be run for the day.
