Hyderabad: No roads, people cross rail tracks

Hyderabad: The absence of roads and transportation facilities is forcing the public and railway passengers to trespass into railway tracks. Sanathnagar is one of the major railway stations in the city which serves passengers who travel by trains like Palnadu, Rayalaseema, Intercity and Kolhapur Expresses and passenger trains like Falaknuma-Gulbarga, Hyderabad-Purna, Secunderabad-Vikarabad, Hyderabad-Tandur, Hyderabad-Bijapur and Hyderabad-Aurangabad.

As the railway station is not having transportation facility, passengers are forced to walk on railway tracks to access platforms leading to accidents. Passengers from Erragadda have to cross the track from the Erragadda flyover to reach this railway station. Railway employees are also using this route. The other route to this station is from Bharatnagar and Jimkalavadi. Earlier, an RTC bus from Kukatpally depot used to ply up to the railway station, but seven years ago it stopped services due to bad roads.

Passengers from Erragadda have to use the foot over bridge to purchase tickets and return to the platform for boarding trains. Passengers from Jimkalavadi have to purchase tickets at the station and go to another platform for taking the train through a foot over bridge. Most passengers do not use the bridge and simply cross the tracks. A similar situation existed at the Safilguda and Malkajgiri railway stations. Lack of transportation and roads is forcing passengers to cross the tracks breaking the Railway Act. Although, the railway police catches trespassers there is no change in the behaviour of locals near the Khairatabad railway track.

Even motorists cross this track when the level cross gate is closed leading to frequent accidents. It has become routine for the public to cross railway tracks at the Necklace Road MMTS station, Neredmet, Cherlapally, Lingampally, Umda-nagar and Uppuguda areas. Additional DG, Railways, T. Krishna Prasad said the railway police was creating awareness among the public regarding this. “We are also imposing penalties and booking cases for trespassing on railway tracks. During a recent meeting with divisional railway managers we decided to install CCTV cameras to prevent this,” he said.