use strict;
use warnings;

use IO::File;

my $filename = 'nt_data.txt';

my $fh = IO::File->new($filename)
    || die "Cannot open '$filename' for reading: $!\n";

my @nt_data;

while (<$fh>)
{
    chomp;

    my %x;
    foreach (split /,/) {
        my ($k, $v) = split /\s*=\s*/;

# This line becomes unnecessary ... you weren't using $hashname anyways ...
#       if ($key =~ /^(LocalTran)(\w*)(Number)$/) { $hashname=$value; }

        $x{$k} = $v;
    }

    push @nt_data, \%x;
}

$fh->close;