“I had travelled from Goa to Vizag last week in Amaravati Express. Vizag, known as Andhra’s Tourism Capital, and hailed as India's second best beach destination next to Goa, lacks a direct train from Goa,” says Rama Rao.
There is only one train (18048/Amaravati Express), that too, four times a week with hardly any berth quota (as the train originates in Howrah). It is high time a direct Super Fast train is introduced between the two beautiful tourist cities.
“If that is not possible, then South Central Railway (SCR) should consider extending 17225 BZA - Hubli Amaravati Express till Vasco-Da-Gama on one side and Vizag on the other.
Such a move will connect all the three regions North Andhra, Coastal AP and Rayalaseema to Goa,” he says.
“I travelled by ‘Yatragenie’ bus from Vizag to Hyderabad along with my wife and daughter, as we couldn’t get reserved accommodation by train. The service on the multi-axle AC bus was good. The bus left Visakhapatnam at 6 p.m. and reached Himayat Nagar by 6 a.m. on the following day. It took another one-and-a-half hour to reach Ameerpet.
The best part was that the bus stopped at a restaurant, about 20 km before Rajahmundry. We were served hygienic and piping hot food that was not a pinch on the pocket. A pack of fried rice for Rs. 130 was enough for two persons.
Another passenger, who had travelled by an RTC Super Luxury bus from Vizag to Tirupati, on March 27, had a different experience.
The bus journey was comfortable but the food at the RTC Complex at Vijayawada was very bad that night.
The driver and conductor of the bus came and sat down at the table and ordered food and when there was no response from the counter clerk even after 10 minutes, the driver walked out of the complex had something at a hotel across the road.
The passengers could not risk going out of the complex, lest they miss the bus. Seeing the attitude of the canteen staff, the passenger wanted to play safe and asked for curd rice.
He was given a plate of curd rice. The curd rice was ‘tasteless’ and was cold. The passenger reluctantly consumed the food otherwise he had to go hungry till the bus reached Tirupati the next morning.
Reporting by B. Madhu Gopal
