Hyderabad: The continuous technical troubles with the Metro Rail services have caused a great deal of frustration for commuters, five years after the first service was launched from Miyapur. The Miyapur-LB Nagar Redline corridor's electronically automated entry and exit gates ceased functioning on Tuesday.
The Hyderabad Metro Rail authorities came under fire from irate commuters on social media for failing to address technical issues, which have occurred more than five times this year alone. They claimed that on the day the Metro Rail celebrated its fifth anniversary, the gates on the Red Kine were inoperable, causing passengers to swarm all of the terminals along the Miyapur-LB Nagar route.
Frequent metro user Bandi Joshua claimed that while using her metro card on Monday, she was refused access at Begumpet metro station and that QR code tickets without sufficient verification were accepted. He asserted that "The Metro Rail is employing one of the low-cost, very erratic, non-robust software."
According to Krishna Kaingiri, the entry gates of the Erragadda station were also not working on Tuesday. He claimed that commuters were compelled to wait for several minutes, leading to chaos.
On social media, several people expressed their frustration with the confusion at the ticket counter and the malfunctions at scan gates. Additionally, Metro card holders were forced to pay cash for their tickets, while other commuters asserted that online payments were invalid and that the staff only accepted cash.
Chandramouli, a frequent Metro user, asserted that when he tried to buy a ticket via PhonePe, money was deducted from his account. However, he claimed that he did not receive the QR code and that the Hyderabad Metro Rail helpline number did not work.
Sherly Christina, a frequent passenger, claimed that she encounters scan problems with the tickets given by the Metro rail almost every other day. "The scanner doesn't recognise the QR code even though the tickets are printed by the Metro rail, therefore I have to keep travelling to different entry points. It occurs quite often. A staff member arrives, issues a new ticket, and assists with the scanning,” she claimed.
