The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Will Lalu allow MMTS to flower?

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Tuesday, Feb 26, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Will Lalu allow MMTS to flower?

- Photo: Mohd Yousuf

Expecting a windfall: An MMTS train packed to capacity.

HYDERABAD: When the Railways Minister Lalu Prasad stands up in Parliament to present the fifth budget, citizens of the twin cities are hoping that he would take a more considerate look at the pending projects.

Traffic weary people want the Minister to announce steps to improve functioning of Multi-Mode Transit System (MMTS) and also sanction funds for its much delayed second phase, which would connect all the new growth regions of the capital.

Although the Railways continue to maintain that the first phase, started in 2003, is running in “losses” of about a one crore rupees a month since its inception, the reality is that the number of commuters has been rising very fast of about 10,000 each month. More than one lakh travel are using the 87 services being run every day.

Phase one covered 43 km of Secunderabad-Hyderabad-Lingampalli (28 km) and Secunderabad-Falaknuma (15 km) at a cost of Rs.178 crore.

Phase two is to connect Secunderabad-Medchal (28 km), Falaknuma-Shamshabad (20 km) and Secunderabad-Ghatkesar (19 km).

The State Government had offered to pick up the two-thirds cost of about Rs.217 crore for the next phase. It had also also proposed to link Moula Ali-Sanatnagar (21 km), Moula Ali-Kacheguda (10 km) and Telapur-Patancheru (8 km). But, a positive response has not been forthcoming from the Railway Board.

“We have even proposed to fund to a large extent the Moula Ali bypass line to facilitate running more MMTS trains costing about Rs.57 crore,” explains a senior official. Railway officials admit that MMTS with more than a lakh commuters a day is sufficient to show operating profits and in any case, the Government had contested the railways methodology arriving at the loss ratio.

More services

“If the Railways allow a joint venture company to be formed it will be possible to show profits with exploitation of real estate and advertisements,” says an official. “Imagine the city without MMTS? Those one lakh riders would have been using the road! Whenever a service was introduced the patronage rose. What we need is more services,” says another official. The bottleneck is while the Government had paid its share of Rs. 97 crore for 18 trains of six bogies each, only nine were pressed into service as “railways underestimated the patronage”. In fact, the Government is ready to pay for any escalated cost for the trains but is frustrated by lack of response from the other side. “The MMTS project and its stations design had come in for praise even by the Railway Board but they are not clearing proposals,” sighs an official.

Currently, the average frequency is 30-50mts even during peak timings but despite obvious constraints, MMTS has become to be accepted and phase two will enable 3.5 lakh commuters to take the service taking that much load of the clogged roads.

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Andhra Pradesh