No relief yet for Duronto passengers

One more instance of the East Coast Railway (ECoR) ignoring the interests of the people of Visakhapatnam and Waltair Division.

Bowing to public demand and pressure from people’s representatives, South Central Railway (SCR) officials have written to their counterparts in the ECoR, seeking their consent for advancement of the departure timing of the Visakhapatnam–Secunderabad Duronto Express. But the latter are said to be playing spoilsport by sitting on the letter.

The South Central Railway (SCR), which operates the train, had received a large number of complaints from passengers at Secunderabad on the frequent late running of this train.

Minister for Tribal Welfare P. Balaraju had also submitted a representation to the SCR seeking advancement of the timing so that the train could reach Secunderabad by 6 a.m.

The common demand of most passengers, particularly businessmen who travel frequently by this train, was that the departure from Visakhapatnam should be around 8 p.m. so that it could reach Secunderabad before 6 a.m.

This was because they were getting caught in traffic jams in the twin cities after 8 a.m. The train was, of late, being regularly delayed by about an hour, adding to their woes.

In the recent IRTTC meeting held in Guwahati, ECoR made a proposal to increase the frequency of this train from tri-weekly to daily by taking over the primary maintenance from Secunderabad. But, after the meeting, it was said to have made a U-turn on the plea that it was not possible to carry out maintenance of the “specialised coaches” due to lack of trained staff at the Coaching Complex in Visakhapatnam.

Trained personnel are available at Puri and Bhubaneswar, and some of them can be deputed to Visakhapatnam if the ECoR headquarters is sensitive to the needs of passengers, feel RTI activists from the city.

“The only way to end the injustice is to de-link Waltair Division from ECoR and set up a new zone with headquarters in Visakhapatnam,” Mr. Balaraju asserted.