Hyderabad: It may take some more time in introducing combined tickets for Metro Rail, RTC buses and MMTS services: Officials have not started work yet. During the introduction of the Multi Model Transportation System (MMTS) in the city one-and-half decades ago, both the Road Transport Corporation and the South Central Railway had introduced combined ticket facility. Though it ran for a few months, the authorities later withdrew the services due to various issues.
Similar issues were discussed and emphasised upon by the RTC and railway auth-orities during the preliminary meetings on the combined ticket facility with Metro Rail authorities. Though L&T is interested in introducing such a facility, it has not approached the RTC or the SCR. SCR chief public relations officer Uma Shanker Kumar said there was no such proposal at present. “No one from either Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited or L&T approached us on the matter,” he said.
Mr A. Purushotham Naik, TSRTC executive director (Greater Hyderabad) said L&T was working on the possibility. “The facility has not met with success in other states. Even eight years after Metro Rail services were started in Delhi, the Delhi government has not introduced this facility. Even in Bengaluru, there is no combined ticket for Namma Metro and KSRTC.”
An official in the RTC, who worked on combined ticket for MMTS and RTC in 2006, said that there were conflicts between the two agencies. “The share on the ticket amount was the major issue as MMTS minimum charge was Rs 3 and RTC Rs 2 at that time. But, RTC faced loses. The RTC may face similar loses whatever the share may be between Metro, MMTS and RTC,” the source said.
50 new buses for Metro travellers
Transport minister Patnam Mahender Reddy on Thursday informed the media that the RTC would operate 50 buses between the new colonies, IT corridor and 10 Metro Rail stations for the convenience of commuters. Speaking at a press conference, the minister along with RTC managing director G.V. Ramana Rao and executive director (Greater Hyderabad) A. Purushotham Naik, said that the RTC was operating 1,700 services on the Metro Rail corridor from Nagole to Miyapur and these would continue, “We have 70 per cent occupancy in the services and we will observe the difference in occupancy ratio for the next two months. Based on the difference, we will take a decision on either cancellation of trips or introducing more services”, he said.
The minister said the RTC had taken up a survey on the opinion of regular commuters between Nagole and Miyapur with 20,000 samples and only 15 per cent of regular commuters expressed their interest in shifting to Metro Rail. “Besides this, the RTC, along with students of Gitam, took up another survey on the necessity of new services from colonies to Metro Rail stations and based on the report, we are introducing 50 new services from November 28”, Mr Reddy said.
He also said that the transport department was ready for Metro Rail Phase-II. “We organised studies in Bengaluru and Mumbai. While our staff visited Bengaluru, I personally studied the Metro Rail and RTC services in Mumbai. We believe that there will be no impact of the Metro Rail on RTC”, he said. The minister said that Metro Rail passengers would have RTC facility at all the stations at an interval of 10 minutes. “As per the report submitted by the Gitam students, we are planning to introduce bus facility to 80 colonies connecting Metro Rail stations”, he said.
