The Railways have launched a new AC Express from Kamakhya to Yeswantpur (train no. 12552/12551), passing through Visakhapatnam city without a halt at either Visakhapatnam Junction or Duvvada, in Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) limits.
Interestingly, the train stops at Brahmapur, Khurda Road, Bhubaneswar, and Cuttack (all under East Coast Railway jurisdiction), all of which are much smaller compared to Visakhapatnam, also in ECoR. The stoppages are given based on the recommendations of the zonal authorities and ECoR has conveniently ignored the highest revenue earning division in the zone and among the top five divisions in the country, by not even providing a halt at Duvvada.
This train starts at 8:30 a.m. at Bangalore on Saturdays and reaches Vizianagaram at 4:30 a.m. and will be very useful to the large number of techies from the city working in Bangalore. Earlier, this train was run as a winter special with a halt at Duvvada. However, the regular version completely ignores this city.
The train also bypasses Kharagpur but stops at Hijli, about 4 km away, which is similar to Duvvada for Vizag. But no stop has been provided at Duvvada, which is 17 km away by rail from Visakhapatnam junction. The authorities concerned are operating eight EMU trains a day between Kharagpur and Hijli, whereas there is not a single EMU between Duvvada and Vizag, though it is much bigger than Kharagpur.
The completion of the second bypass line between Simhachalam and Gopalapatnam seems to have given new impetus to the ECoR authorities to divert more trains without touching Vizag, adding to the woes of passengers from the city.
