Hyderabad: Last-mile link still a distant dream

Hyderabad: The tussle between Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) and TSRTC over providing last-mile connectivity to passengers will go on for some more time as bus routes have not been reoriented, there is a delay in the electric vehicle policy and also because of the elections. 

Highly-placed HMRL sources said the RTC was reluctant to reworking its routes. The sources noted that some of the buses running along the Metro Rail can cater to parts of the city where there is a dearth of connectivity.

The Metro Rail frequency has been increased from eight minutes to three-and-half minutes in view of the heavy rush at peak hours, but the RTC says there is no new requirement to reorient services or deploy more buses.

An RTC official said the Metro Rail had impacted occupancy of about 20 a/c buses, while other services remained unaffected. RTC executive director C. Vinod Kumar said the Metro Rail service is still new. “We have to wait to go into details of reorientation. Undoubtedly there is a little impact on a/c buses wherein the per kilometre earning is reduced on average by '6. There is no impact on the other buses.”

The per km earning has dropped from Rs 54 to Rs 48 on RTC Route 218, which is served by 18 a/c  buses. There is no impact on Route 222.

The Miyapur-Nagole corridor was started in November 2017 and Ameerpet-LB Nagar in September 2018. An RTC official said 50 non-AC services were reoriented, but this was done before the Metro Rail services began.

HMRL sources said buses are key to connect to the interiors as people may not prefer to use cabs to reach the Metro Rail stations.

An RTC official said, “Our network is taking care of last mile connectivity. If there is a specific need, we will take care of it after duly examination. No new demand has been noticed.”

He said that RTC services were in a way acting as feeder services. All buses from Ibrahimpatnam, Hayatnagar and Secunderabad converge at LB Nagar.

Another key compenent to providing last-mile connectivity is the electric vehicles policy. The Centre has not come out with a proper framework for electric vehicles because of which there has been on movement on that front.