The Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMR) has appointed a multi-disciplinary inter-departmental committee to conduct a thorough study of the places identified by the traffic police and come up with both immediate and long-term remedial measures to improve safety conditions along the Metro Rail corridors in the city.
The committee consists of an independent traffic and transportation expert T. S. Reddy, HMRL engineers - B. N. Rajeswar and Y. Sayapa Reddy —, GHMC EE (Traffic & Transportation) M. Venkat Reddy, and ACP (Traffic), Hyderabad, with HMRL Additional DCP A.Balakrishna as member-convenor.
In a press release on Monday, HMR MD N.V.S. Reddy asked the committee to interact with the traffic police of Cyberabad and Rachakonda commissionerates and also the Concessionaire for Metro Rail project — L&TMRH — and submit its recommendations within one month.
The panel was constituted after Mr. Reddy held discussions with Police Commissioner M. Mahender Reddy and GHMC Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy in the wake of the Hyderabad traffic police requesting the HMRL to initiate remedial measures in some “prospective accident-prone” places along the Metro Rail corridors.
The clamour for safety features along the project construction routes grew following the fatal crash of a high-end vehicle into a metro pillar on Road No.36 Jubilee Hills in which A.P. Minister Narayana’s son was killed. It was pointed out that the capital roads were designed for a maximum speed of 65 kmph and if any vehicle was travelling at a speed over 200 kmph, there was “no way a metro rail pillar or any other structure can be designed to prevent such accidents.”
The committee would be looking into several rail-related road safety measures like provision of reflective signages on metro pillars, protective measures in formation of central median below the metro viaduct, provision/non-provision of the central median when the metro viaduct is off the main carriageway and/or in narrow roads, formation of kidney islands, pedestrian refuge areas etc.