Cracks appear on walls, staircase of Moosapet Metro station, L & T takes up repairs

Hyderabad: Cracks surfaced on the walls and the staircase of Moosapet Metro station a couple of days ago. However, they have been rectified immediately, the Hyderabad Metro Rail authorities informed.

The cracks were noticed on the external side of the concourse level of the metro station, towards the other side of the Moosapet flyover. The cracks were visibly deep and spread to a wider area over the wall.

Further, cracks were also noticed in the staircase that leads into the station, towards the vegetable market, located underneath. Further, a road also passes below the area of the cracks, posing a risk to motorists.

Passersby who noticed the cracks alerted the metro rail authorities, following which repairs were taken up. “The cracks on the surface appear due to wide fluctuations in temperature. The narrow surface cracks have been widened by L&T engineers for filling & rectifying them. Rectification has been completed. They are waiting for the dry spell for painting,” the authorities of Hyderabad Metro Rail informed.

According to sources, the cracks could be a result of lack of maintenance to the structures during the last five months when lockdown was imposed on the metro rail operations due to the pandemic.

In February 2020, 26-year-old Mounika died after a portion of a slab at the Ameerpet metro station fell on her. She had reached the station from Kukatpally availing Metro services and was taking cover from heavy rain under the station when a portion of slab fell on her. After this incident, there were rumours on social media platforms about various metro stations in Hyderabad city, developing cracks and posing risk to users.

Metro Rail authorities termed the rumours as fake and even took up regular inspection works at all metro stations following the incident at Ameerpet.