The Hyderabad metro operations commenced from Monday after the Centre announced Unlock-4. Residents have been struggling due to lack of public transport for the past four months. However, only a few thousands have turned up on the first day.
The rising number of COVID positive cases in the city seems to play a spoilsport for the people to venture out and take the metro train journey. It is evident that the residents are weighing in safer options of transport to avoid contact with passengers. Individual vehicles, cabs, autos are dominating the city roads since the last one month.
On the first day, the Hyderabad Metro Rail operated only on the Miyapur to LB Nagar stretch and catered to a meager 19,000 commuters which is the lowest ever. Before the COVID outbreak, the same stretch would record commuter traffic of 70,000 passengers on normal days and cross 1 lakh during festivals or wedding seasons.
Currently, RTC operated City buses are off the roads causing much inconvenience to thousands of commuters who have come to depend on them, but the fear of COVID is such that commuters are not willing to risk their lives by taking the metro. Sensing fear among the people, the Hyderabad Metro Rail Corporation has decided to operate the trains in a phased manner.
In the first phase, it has decided to commence operations in corridor-1, from Miyapur to LB Nagar, covering a distance of 29 kms. As against 800 trips on a normal day, the Hyderabad Metro has decided to limit the operations to 120 trips.
Other metro cities are also witnessing similar commuter behavior where metro rail travel is not considered the prime option. Hyderabad Metro expressed hope that the number of footfalls will increase in the coming days.
