SECURITY FIRST: The old bus bay in front of Secunderabad Railway Station is deserted with the railway authorities banning entry of buses inside the complex owing to security reasons. — Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD: Commuters had a tough time negotiating the newly changed bus bays in front of Secunderabad station after South Central Railway (SCR) decided not to allow RTC buses to use its premises from Wednesday.

Passengers had to run from pillar to post just to find out the newly assigned bus stands for bus numbers 26 (towards Bowenpally), 5 and 49 (Begumpet to Namapally via Secunderabad) near the Secunderabad station. With the RTC officials not getting enough time to display the details of buses, chaotic scenes became the order of the day.

Commuters coming to the railway station to catch their respective trains were seen lugging their huge baggage from outside the railway station premises. "They can't take such decisions all of a sudden without prior notice. We had to go all the way to the RTC enquiry centre and then come back to the new bus stop near Rathifile for bus number 26," said retired teacher P. Chalapathi Rao, a regular traveller on this route.

The RTC officials were fretting and fuming over the sudden decision of the SCR officials and pointed out that they should have waited for one more year for the integrated bus service terminal to come up in place of the old Gandhi Hospital.

Tenders invited

"They should have waited just for another year because we have already invited tenders to construct the integrated bus service terminal. RTC does not have any problem in shifting the bus bays, but it's the passengers who will be at the receiving end," said APSRTC Regional Manager C. Panduranga Murthy. Commuters who travelled by bus No. 26 had to carry their luggage right from Rathifile bus stand to railway station. "It is very difficult to carry luggage all the way to the railway station. The officials should look into the problem because the rush here is huge," said another commuter N. Pratap.

RTC Divisional Manager, Secunderabad, B. Krishna Hari said: "We will continue to bring our buses outside the station premises for another one week. We are planning to shift the bus bay for bus No. 26 to Gurudwara bus stand in a week's time."

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