The East Coast Railway (ECoR) authorities had to beat a hasty retreat and issue a revised notice on Tuesday after irate rail users took to Twitter, to express their ire on its announcement on continuation of Visakhapatnam-Yesvantapur weekly special as a ‘Suvidha’ train.
It may be recalled that train No. 06579/80 Yesvantpur-Visakhapatnam-Yesvantpur weekly Tatkal special was introduced by the South Western Railway (SWR) on the plea of thousands of Telugus living in Bengaluru. It was converted into a Suvidha special with dynamic fare in the return direction.
The Tatkal fare will be around Rs.200 in addition to the normal fare but Suvidha fare can go up by four or five times from the normal fare, depend on the demand at the time of booking.
The ECoR authorities initially issued a notice on social media announcing extension of the train and its continuation as Suvidha special with train No. 82664 in the return direction (Visakhapatnam to Yesvantpur).
A rail user tweeted: If SWR can run the train as a Tatkal special, what is stopping GM East Coast Railway from running it as a Tatkal. Is it greed for money or discrimination? Two types of fares for one train, is it what people want? Please revert back decision and run as Tatkal, tweeted another passenger. “ECoR has converted the Tatkal special train into Suvidha for the third time and we decided to take on them this time,” said a rail user.
ECoR was forced to issue a revised notice changing the return train No. to 06580 and announcing it as Tatkal special.
The revised decision comes as a big relief for rail users and they welcome the decision.
