Bad design? Hyderabad metro passengers flag concerns about toilets at remote end of stations

Hyderabad: Imagine that you are traveling from Raidurg to Durgam Cheruvu. You take the ticket at the concourse level. Just before you take the escalator to the platform, you feel like going to the toilet. You look around, but there is none.

This is not the case with the Raidurg metro station but is the case with almost all the metro stations in Hyderabad- be it blue, red, or green. In the interchange station at Ameerpet, there is a toilet near one of the platforms. This is the only metro station in the city that has a toilet within the station. In all other metro stations, it is at one end of the station.

On 19 November, World Toilet Day, NewsMeter traces the difficulties faced by passengers due to this placement of the metro toilets.

"Being a diabetic patient, I need to use washrooms more usually. It's erratic that the restrooms are placed in only one corner of the situation. This happened at least twice for me," said Prashant from Hyderabad.

He added that the staff helped him go to the other side with their access cards.

Now, if a person is inside the station and wants to use the washroom, they can contact the station staff who use their access cards and help them exit to use the washroom. At the same time, many passengers said that it is sometimes a troublesome task as they have to explain multiple times to the staff to let them exit.

Sai Ratnam, a transport expert from the city said people at the counter let you go through the gates to use the washroom but he added that it entirely depends on the discretion of the people sitting there. "I have been told no multiple times," he said.

On the other hand, some people said that the metro staff was understanding and they did not face any problems exiting.

"It also becomes an issue in stations when you exit and realize that toilets are on the other end. Ideally, there should be signage inside the paid area of the concourse showing which side the toilets are," he said.

"If you don't know which side to exit, you have to get down and go all the way to the other side and enter," said Ananda Sangeetam, another city resident.

Naveena Ghanate, another metro passenger shared her experience from 2020 when she was pregnant. "When we are pregnant, we have to go to the washroom often. I had to pay in order to go. There was no other way, I had to go. So nothing has changed! ," she recalled.

Sudhir Chiplunkar, Chief Operating Officer, L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) said that the toilets were built at the extreme end of the metro stations in the unpaid areas so that anybody can use them. "People from the streets can also use them. Also, building them inside have some technical/construction-related inconveniences," he said.

Madhu Sharma, a city resident said when he was traveling on the road and had wanted to use the washroom. "I was passing by Gandhi Bhavan metro station on 11 November 2022 and wanted to use the loo. I thought the metro station toilet would be helpful. The security guard asked me if I had a ticket. Why will I purchase a ticket if I am not traveling in the metro? Finally, he made me buy a ticket costing Rs. 50 and then I used the loo," said Madhu.

Sudhir also said that very few people might want to use the toilet in between their journeys. "Passengers can use the washrooms before or after the journey. Very few people might want to use it in the middle of their journey. Even, in that case, they are allowed to use it with the help of the security personnel's cards," he said.

The L&T metro rail officials added that there are standing instructions that security must allow the use of the toilet at the concourse level and there is no need to swipe the tickets.