The Yesvantpur-Visakhapatnam-Yesvantpur Tatkal special, being operated by the South Western Railway (SWR), is being run as Suvidha special, with dynamic fare, by the East Coast Railway in the return direction from Visakhapatnam to Yesvantpur.
“This is nothing but gross injustice to the people of Visakhapatnam. ECoR is doing this to save the Suvidha trains operated by it from Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur to Bengaluru (Krishnarajapuram and Yesvantpur respectively), which are running almost empty. The ECoR officials want passengers from Visakhapatnam to utilise these trains instead of the SWR train originating from Vizag,” allege passengers.
“The ECoR officials could argue that they are also running Suvidha specials with dynamic fare. But the fare on these Suvidha trains is generally between Rs.3,000 and Rs.4.000 from Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur, perhaps leading to poor demand. Coming to flights, the fare from Bhubaneswar to Bengaluru is around Rs.5,500, when booked one day in advance and it is around Rs.4,500 even if booked a week in advance,” says a frequent traveller of the city.
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“On the other hand, the flight fare from Visakhapatnam to Bengaluru is only around Rs.3,174, if booked a day in advance and if booked a week in advance, one could get it for around Rs.2,000.”
“This is because of the tremendous demand and availability of a good number of flights between these two cities,” he says
“A couple of weeks ago my son, who works in a software company, had to shell out Rs. 6,500 to travel by 3rd AC on Visakhapatnam-Yesvantpur Suvidha special of SWR. He had to rush back that Sunday evening as he had to report for duty the next morning. This is nothing but penalising passengers. The Suvidha fares should be transparent and the percent age of increase should be notified in advance,” says another passenger from Vizag.
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“I flew with Air India from Dubai to Vizag by AI 952 in Business Class and Economy class respectively on Nov 10 and Dec 5. There was no in-flight entertainment in the aircraft,” says M. Pradyumna of Vizag.
“As per the AI Twitter Handle, the Aircraft model A321 does not support IFE (In-Flight Entertainment) but the same aircraft model had IFE till a few months ago. The seats are rock hard, the armrests broken and the washrooms were stinking and leaking.
“If this is the way AI treats international passengers, there is no point taking the flight but since VTZ (Vizag) doesn’t have any other direct flight to Dubai, people are forced to travel by it.”
“Indigo and SpiceJet along with AI Express operate many flights to Dubai from Tier-II metros like Varanasi but do not operate flights from Vizag for reasons unknown,” says Mr. Pradyumna.
(Reporting By B. Madhu Gopal)