Raju, a portly man in his 50s, lugs two heavy bags as he scans the platforms at the sprawling Cherlapalli railway station. “Can you tell me on which platform the train to Nanded is arriving,” he asks, beads of sweat forming on his brow despite the gathering clouds.
He and his wife had set off from their home in Malkajgiri, a suburb in Hyderabad, two and a half hours early and paid ₹350 for an autorickshaw just to reach this new terminal, about 11 kilometres away. Moments later, as the skies open up, the couple scramble for cover near a police outpost on platform 1, dodging not just rain but scattered construction material too.
Seven months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated the ₹430-crore Cherlapalli terminal — billed as South Central Railway’s (SCR) swanky new passenger hub — the shine is starting to wear thin for many travellers. Daily footfall has jumped from 5,000 to nearly 30,000, with as many as 88 trains now using the station, including 57 on a daily average. Some originating trains from Secunderabad station, almost 11 km away, have been gradually shifted here, as redevelopment work picks up pace at the older terminal.
The idea behind developing Cherlapalli into a full-fledged terminal was to decongest the overburdened Secunderabad station. With long-distance trains increasingly running out of slots at the centrally located junction, SCR began moving select services to Cherlapalli while simultaneously ramping up renovation works at Secunderabad.
