The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation and South Central Railways have announced several steps to handle the rush of passengers during the festive season of Dasara and Deepavali.
While the APSRTC has chalked out plans to run 3,335 specials in addition to its regular services between September 26 and October 2, the SCR will run 207 specials this month and the next to different destinations. Both the organisations have also constituted special teams to constantly monitor the flow of passengers and press additional buses/trains into service, depending upon the demand.
The RTC’s specials will be operated to destinations include Medak, Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Vijayawada, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Ongole, Nellore, Chittoor, Tirupati and Anantapur from the State capital. On its part, SCR trains will ferry passengers to most of these cities, apart from Chennai, Amritsar, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Yesvantpur, Guwahati, Santragachi, Aurangabad, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Howrah, Gondia and Hubli.
Apart from the specials and augmenting carrying capacity of scheduled express trains, SCR has set up extra ticket counters and encouraged passengers to use e-ticketing, Janasadharan Ticket Booking Sevaks and Automatic Ticket Vending Machines. It also asked officials from the Commercial, Vigilance and Security departments to carry out special checks all through the season to prevent irregularities in booking and reservation, apart from pressing squads of Commercial Officers and ticket-checking staff for surprise checks on anti-social elements.
Special attention will be paid to detect sale of transferred tickets, with staff posted near ticket-booking windows at reservation counters to countersign the requisition forms after ensuring that all details were filled-in by passengers including their address. Special focus will be given on providing passenger amenities like drinking water, wheelchairs for those who needed them, proper up-keep of waiting halls and cleanliness at stations and lighted signages, apart from frequent announcements on movement of trains.
