Railway Divisional Manager Ashok Kumar had admitted that there was an abnormal delay in train services that are being running between Viajayawada and Visakhapatnam, including long distance trains. He attributed the abnormal delay to “un-precedent rush with large volume of passengers in the wake of Godavari Pushkarams. The DRM also indirectly admitted that they were helpless as there was no other go to transport passengers to their destinations, thought they increased the number of trains, all of them have to run on only two lines.
In an informal meeting with media persons, the DRM said about 82 trains were run during normal time and about 41 pairs of trains in direction and 32 extra trains are being planned to clear the rush of passengers during this period.
“Normally a train enters the yard (station point) in 30 km. Keeping the heavy crowd on platforms and also some people crossing the tracks, we have asked the drivers to go in crawling speed,” Mr. Ashok Kumar said. He said they had strictly implemented the “first come first move” system means, any MEMU train, passenger train or super fast train, which comes first to station will move first and other trains have to follow. “There will be no ‘crossing’ of super fast trains as it was a practice in normal times,” he added.
Asked about not giving any information to passengers about abnormal delays like 8 to 12 hours delay or rescheduling, the DRM said he will inform his officials to do immediately in all the stations.
He said 7.51 lakh passengers travelled by trains from July 14 to 19 and Railways netted Rs.5.52 crore and Rajahmundry alone they have earned Rs.1.57 crore.
