The Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) on Friday, October 7, announced that the service hours of the metro rail will be extended to 11 pm. The new rule will come into effect from Monday, October 10 onwards. NVS Reddy, the Managing Director of HMRL, in a statement on Friday, said that the last train will leave at 11 pm from respective terminal stations, while the first trains will start at the usual 6 am. Currently, the last train leaves from the terminal stations at 10.15 pm.
The decision to extend the metro timing comes just about a month after the Hyderabad Metro registered its highest footfall after the pandemic on September 9, during the immersion of Ganesh idols. On the day, over 4 lakh passengers availed the metro rail service. The average daily ridership on the Hyderabad metro is currently about 3.78 lakh, while it was over 4 lakh before COVID-19.
Ever since employees have been asked to come back to offices, the footfall in the Hyderabad metro has substantially gone up, leading to a demand for increased frequency of trains. Earlier in June, a spokesperson from L&T told TNM, “With the outbreak of COVID-19, metro services were suspended for 169 days from March 22 till September 6, 2020. After the unlock, the metro resumed its services from September 7, 2020 in phases with all COVID-19 safety protocols. We have continued to serve the city with truncated operations even during the second and third waves of COVID, including the state-wide night curfews and lock-downs.”
As more and more offices have begun to recall their employees to work in the office, passenger ridership has been very high during office hours. “Currently, Hyderabad Metro Rail is recovering steadily and in the last few months, we are witnessing about 3 lakh passengers daily. The passenger ridership is high during office hours both in the morning and evening,” added the spokesperson.