Hyderabad: With the fear of Covid-19 spreading through contaminated aerosols, the Hyderabad Metro Rail is taking special measures to ensure fresh air inside Metro trains, which will resume service here on Monday.
According to HMRL Managing Director NVS Reddy, the intake of fresh air in the air-conditioning system would be increased to about 75 per cent.
Temperature inside the train would be maintained in the range of 24-30 degree Celsius depending on local climatic conditions. Operation of the Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) system is being done as per the Central Public Works Department and Indian Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning engineers’ guidelines.
Train doors will be opened at the terminal station to let fresh air into the train, which will halt at the station for over 30 seconds or if needed for a minute, Reddy said, adding that the way in which one travelled in the Metro would be different from Monday.
From wearing masks, sanitizing hands to undergoing thermal screening to checking temperature before entering the Metro station, there would be more changes such as stopping the issuing of coins to be dropped at the kiosk before boarding the train. Smart card and mobile QR tickets with cashless online transactions would be encouraged, he said, adding that only asymptomatic would be allowed to travel after undergoing thermal screening at the entrance of the metro station. Symptomatic persons would be advised to visit nearby Covid-19 care centre for testing and further treatment.
“If anyone is found to be showing high temperature, he or she will be sent to the isolation ward at the station and they would not be allowed to travel,” he said, adding that HMRL was making arrangements to supply masks on payment basis.
Passengers were asked to travel with minimum luggage and to avoid carrying metallic items for easy and quick scanning. They would be encouraged to carry a small bottle of sanitizer with them. All human contact areas such as lift buttons, escalator handrails and customer handling points would be disinfected frequently at stations, preferably every four hours.
The trains too would be cleaned/disinfected thoroughly during non-operational hours at the depots before starting services. Depending upon the frequency and reversal time available at terminal stations, human touchpoints such as handrails inside the trains too would be cleaned at terminal stations after every round trip.
