The Railways have once again let down the local people by postponing the launch of the Duronto tri-weekly AC Express between Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam. The South Central Railway (SCR) earlier announced that the train would be flagged off at Secunderabad on Friday (July 6) but issued a statement on Wednesday that the launch was postponed, without assigning any reason for the same.
They, however, noted that the revised date of introduction would be notified in due course, and promised full refund to passengers, who have already booked their tickets, upon cancellation of their tickets.
It may be recalled that the Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Duronto was announced in the 2011 budget and was supposed to have been introduced much before April this year. The train number and timings of the tri-weekly Secunderabad -Visakhapatnam AC Duronto were announced about a year ago.
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This had kindled the hopes of passengers of the region who are looking for a super-fast AC express as the originating trains from Visakhapatnam to the State capital are almost always full.
It had been announced that the non-stop train will cover the distance of 701 km in 9 hours and 25 minutes, making it the fastest train between the two cities.
The launch was postponed from time to time on the plea of non-availability of rake.
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Finally after a long wait the Railways had allotted ‘overused’ rake of Rajdhani Express a few months ago for Duronto. The old coaches were given a major overhaul and finally the date of the inaugural run on July 6 was announced by SCR.
It was announced that the train would commence regular services from Secunderabad on July 9 and from Visakhapatnam on July 8.
The undue delay in the launch of the train was attributed to the non-availability of coaches so far. It’s learnt that the launch was postponed due to non-availability of a VIP, who was supposed to flag-off the train. It’s high time that greater importance was given to the needs of passengers rather than satisfying those in power.