Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was right in drawing the attention of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, during the latter’s recent visit to Vijayawada, on the need for an early decision on the establishment of the new Railway Zone with headquarters in Visakhapatnam.
Visakhapatnam MP and BJP State president Kambhampati Haribabu wrote a letter to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu regarding growing resentment among people of North Andhra, against the ‘step motherly’ treatment from the Bhubaneswar-headquartered East Coast Railway, which had forcibly extended trains such as Prasanthi, Visakha, Visakha – Chennai Express and other trains to Bhubaneswar apart from failing to introduce additional trains despite huge demand from Visakhapatnam.
The demands made by Union Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Mr. Haribabu for introduction of a double decker train between Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada or Tirupathi and speeding up the AP AC Express have not materialised till today.
To add insult to injury, the demands for re-routing of Howrah-Yesvantpur Duronto, Kamakhya-Bengaluru Suvidha and Kamakhya-Bengaluru AC Express via Visakhapatnam, construction of four additional platforms on the Gnanapuram-side and third line from Visakhapatnam to Duvvada and Simhachalam were also ignored.
Now, passengers have lambasted ECoR on Twitter for ‘converting’ the Yesvantapur-Visakhapatnam Tatkal Special train, introduced by the South Western Railway (SWR), into a Suvidha Special train in the return direction. A Twitter user attached the press releases issued by ECoR, SWR and SCR and posted it on the Twitter handle @RailMinIndia seeking a clarification.
He wrote: ‘ECoR cheating public and working anti-Vskp’.
Uttrandhra Now tweeted: how long will you continue step motherly treatment to @VskpJn?
Santosh Baratam tweeted ‘bringing pathetic treatment of ecor to Vskp daily still @ sureshpprabhu is on mute # railwayzone for Vskp @Pawan Kalyan.
Srinivas@nivasindukuri tweeted: Train LTT to Vskp 18520 cockroaches everywhere in B 1 coach. Broken flush and stinking bathrooms. AC classes missing min. facilities.
Santosh Baratam tweeted worst maintenance at Vskp under ecor # railwayzoneforvskp is the only solution for better service at Watcor.
Sikkolu Bidda tweeted: Thnku @ srdcmsbc @ sureshpprabhu @ncbn for Yesvantpur Vizag Express, it is like a dream come true for people of AP. Please regularize it.
It’s high time that the Railway Minister, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from AP, took concrete steps to end the injustice to Visakhapatnam, the passengers said.
