Thousands of season ticket holders, vexed with the discriminatory attitude of the railway authorities holding up their train in the outer almost everyday, came onto the tracks and held up the train traffic on the Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada main line for over two hours on Wednesday morning.
Thousands of passengers travelling by trains on the Viskahapatnam-Vijayawada line in both directions had a harrowing experience as the monthly season ticket holders (MSTs) travelling by the Kakinada-Visakhapatnam Passenger staged an impromptu rail roko on the Duvvada-Visakhapatnam main line near Patha Gopalapatnam. They raised slogans against the indifferent attitude of the railway authorities towards the recurring problem.
Many passengers, including women and children, were seen walking along the track with their luggage to reach the road point near Patha Gopalapatnam. “This train is detained for about half-an-hour on an average every day after Duvvada and the trains coming from Odisha side are given priority. We helplessly watch the ‘privileged trains’ pass by and reach our offices late, students have to forego their classes and petty workers lose their daily bread due to the recurring delay,” Daily Passengers’ Association leader M. Umamaheswara Rao said.
The association had already represented the matter to the ECoR authorities on several occasions in the past. They also apprised MPs Kambhampati Haribabu (Visakhapatnam), Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao (Anakapalle) and Kothapalli Geetha (Araku) of it and the latter took it to the notice of ECoR General Manager in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.
Good revenue “One more train is needed for MST holders coming to the city. The Kakinada Passenger is carrying two train loads and there is hardly any place to sit. The railways is also earning good revenue from MST holders but it is giving preference to trains from Odisha where people generally travel without tickets,” says G. Srinivasa Rao, an MST holder from Tuni.
“About 3,000 workers from Anakapalle are coming by this train, which is being detained at Gopalapatnam outer for 30 minutes,” says K. Durga Prasad of Anakapalle. “I am getting delayed for my classes every day,” says Kishore, a chemical engineering student of the Government Polytechnic.
The agitators relented and called off the protest seeing women and children struggling to reach the nearest road point.
ECo Railway blames SCR
The Kakinada-Visakhapatnam Passenger was detained after Duvvada as it arrived 30 minutes late and there were express trains, which had to be cleared. The detention was necessitated due to the late arrival at Duvvada both on Wednesday and on Tuesday, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager M. Yelvender Yadav said.
“We cannot detain express trains, which are running on schedule to take a passenger train, which arrived late. The Vijayawada Division of South Central Railway (SCR) has to take the responsibility for the delay and detention and the East Coast Railway (ECoR) cannot be blamed for it,” he said and added that Divisional Railway Manager of Waltair Anil Kumar took up the matter with his counterpart in Vijayawada.
Reacting to the statements of the Daily Passengers’ Association that it had represented the matter to the ECoR authorities several times in the past, the ECoR official said that they (the officials) had not received any such representation.
