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.
“Why can’t they follow the Chennai MMTS model with a clearly published schedule? That way, passengers can plan their travel as local train is the most convenient and cheapest means of transportation. Sometimes I can’t help but feel the SCR is deliberately killing MMTS to benefit metro rail services,” he alleges.
Frequent delays and abrupt cancellations have been the common grouse of most passengers even as SCR mandarins claim to be unable to comprehend poor patronage for MMTS.
“Our ridership dropped by 40% post COVID-19 outbreak. Even petty vendors did not use our service though our fares are the cheapest, with tickets priced at ₹5-10. If one has a monthly pass, the daily commuting fare drops to as low as ₹2. Following my interaction with passengers, we reduced the number of coaches to nine from 12 and introduced an extra service during the morning and evening peak hours,” SCR General Manager Arun Kumar Jain had said during a recent media interaction.
Free bus travel for women, introduced last December by the new Congress government in Telangana, is also stated as a reason for local trains falling out of favour with commuters.
Scaling down
MMTS first phase spanning 45 km was constructed through a 50:50 cost-sharing agreement of ₹160 crore between the then State government and the SCR. This involved connecting Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Falaknuma, and Lingampally by utilising the existing rail network and addressing a few gaps in the transportation infrastructure.
MMTS Phase-II for 103 km was sanctioned in 2012-13, with a budget allocation of ₹817 crore, which has escalated to ₹1,165 crore. The last section of Sanath Nagar to Moula Ali doubling with electrification for 22 km has been completed and is scheduled to be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon.
The first service of the day starts between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. on various routes while the last train is run till 11.30 p.m. A senior official of SCR suggests that there has been only a “marginal” rise in daily ridership ever since parts of MMTS Phase Two was opened like Falaknuma-Umdnagar (12 km) and Medchal to Lingampally (28 km) suburbs last summer by the Prime Minister.
Be it due to a drop in ridership or inability to run local trains due to clogged lines capacities, the SCR has scaled back its daily services stating that they will “run more services if more people opt for MMTS”.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it operated 121 services, catering to 1.20 lakh passengers. Now, it accommodates less than 50,000 passengers through approximately 80 services.
This is in stark contrast with the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR), which operates on an overhead viaduct connecting three heavily congested traffic corridors in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. At least two routes extending to 29 km each — Blue Line linking Raidurg (hosting numerous IT/ITES firms) to Nagole and Red Line connecting L.B. Nagar to Miyapur — operate at full capacity during peak hours. The daily ridership on these routes reaches up to 5 lakh.
There is a clamour for more trains during peak hours and extension of metro lines even when the fares are comparatively higher, priced between ₹10 and ₹60 per commute with no provision for a monthly pass. “We cannot compare with metro rail because the segment is totally different and moreover, they may be providing better first and last mile connectivity,” Jain had said, when told about the incongruity.
Passing the buck
SCR and Indian Railways may well want to put up a facade of not knowing what to do with MMTS even as the last stretch of Phase II is getting ready to be opened for services. Official apathy and lack of funding are two factors as the SCR waited in vain for the State government to provide two-third cost as per a pact signed in 2010.
The project was supposed to have been completed by 2018 and the SCR claims there is a pending payment of ₹481 crore from the State government. No wonder, the Railways is non-committal about buying new train sets and intends to run skeletal services in the newly-opened sections with the “existing sets” of about 14 rakes (train sets of 12 coaches each), six of which are new rakes introduced in 2019.
Incidentally, Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast Region G. Kishan Reddy, who is also the Telangana BJP chief and Secunderabad MP, had earlier vowed to complete MMTS Phase-II, including the stalled Yadadri line from Ghatkesar (33 km, costing ₹474 crore) without waiting for State government funds. But, during his last media interaction at Secunderabad station, he was non-committal about commissioning full-fledged services even without State government support.
It is clear that neither the State government nor the Railways is interested in ensuring that the MMTS project is run to its stated objectives and to providing a cheaper, reliable and efficient public transport option which can complement the metro rail expansion plans.
Citizens, however, have not given up hope as was exemplified by the avalanche of responses this newspaper received or the chatter on social media regarding glaring issues and steps to improve MMTS functioning.
“From late morning until mid-afternoon, train services are erratic, which puts commuters to great inconvenience. Responses to complaints on the RailMadad app attribute the delays to technical and operational issues. There have been instances where goods trains are granted clearance ahead of local passenger services, further exacerbating the delay and inconvenience,” says 33-year-old software engineer V. Nagaraju, residing at Sitaphalmandi, a bustling old locality in the city.
Sajid Ali regularly travels from Jamai-Osmania to Hi-Tec City, a distance of 20 km, which takes two hours of more by road and roughly 50 minutes by MMTS, provided there is no signal issue. He says, “It is not about the footfall but also the perception of an active service for commuters. Services should be made available at least every 45 minutes during non-rush hours so that MMTS is available as a transport option to commuters.”
Whose loss is it anyway?
People are dissatisfied with the irregular services and have voted with their feet by moving away from the MMTS. “Lack of good public transport puts extra load on private vehicles, adding to the carbon footprint and road congestion. The State government needs to step in to improve MMTS services in its pursuit of making Hyderabad an attractive place to live in,” says 61-year-old Sushil Prasad, a risk consultant from Gachibowli, an affluent IT neighbourhood of the city.
V. Upender, another commuter who frequents between Secunderabad and Hi-Tec City, complains about last-minute announcements about arrivals on platforms making it difficult to catch the MMTS train on time. “There appears to be no accountability or responsibility from the lower level staff to higher officials,” he laments.
Some railway officials insist it is “not possible” to run more MMTS trains on existing lines although they do admit that the SCR had made use of the project to develop infrastructure to run more long distance and freight trains. “A dedicated line alone can facilitate running of more trains at better frequency and punctuality,” says an official.
Why this was not considered during project conceptualisation when the State government was asked to chip in with funds is what citizens are asking now. “A dedicated line will take a long time. The SCR can run local trains with advance planning and time management using existing lines. For example, they can run trains from Safilguda to Sitaphalmandi station instead of halting midway, in no man’s land,” avers Hari, 50, a private sector employee, from Safilguda.
“Priority should be given to local trains as is being done in other metro cities like Mumbai and Chennai since people are seeking better frequency and timely running of trains. If the existing infrastructure is inadequate, it is better to divert a few express trains on other routes and shift terminal points to the upcoming Cherlapalli station,” says Noor, general secretary of the MMTS Travellers Association, Malakjgiri.
