‘An escape from jaws of death, a rebirth’

Emotional scenes prevail as Duronto Express arrives at Secunderabad station with pilgrims who had gone on ‘Char Dham’ yatra

They witnessed buildings caving into the river and the surging waters cutting the roads right in front of them, leaving them stranded for four days at Gangotri in Uttarakhand.

After witnessing the destruction and undergoing the trauma, a couple – K. Srinivas and Brahmaramba – from Gudimalkapur could not believe their luck and broke down on seeing their family members at the Secunderabad railway station on Saturday. It was a close shave for them as they were staying in a lodge abutting the river in Aisha village.

“Had not the lodge staff asked us to vacate the room immediately, we would have been washed away along with the building. It’s definitely a rebirth for us as we escaped from the jaws of death,” said Mr. Srinivas, hugging his mother at the station.

Emotional scenes prevailed on platform No. 6 when the Duronto Express from New Delhi arrived at the station with a few pilgrims who had gone on the ‘Char Dham’ yatra and got stranded at different places in Uttarakhand.

Family members broke down on meeting their elder relatives who returned from the yatra. “We had almost lost hope after watching visuals in television news channels. Thankfully, my father Badrinath Lahoti called me and informed that my mother and two other relatives were safe,” said an emotional Bopal when his father alighted from the train.

Meanwhile, TDP Corporator Singireddy Srinivas Reddy urged Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy to make arrangements for transporting pilgrims from A.P. Bhavan in New Delhi to Hyderabad in flights. In a letter to the Chief Minister on Saturday, he appealed to conduct pathological tests and adequate immunisation for the pilgrims to curtail spread of contagious diseases.