At a time when the railways authorities are all set to celebrate the completion of 125 years of the passage of the first goods train and first passenger train through Waltair station (present Visakhapatnam junction) on Saturday, the Vizagapatam Town Station near the Lakshmi Talkies in the Old Town area has triggered a wave of nostalgia among the generation that has seen the defunct facility in its prime.
It’s time the facility be revived and accorded a heritage station status, they say.
The strategic importance of Visakhapatnam, located midway between erstwhile Calcutta and Madras, was foreseen by the British more than a century ago. They had acquired hundreds of acres in and around the city to meet the future requirements of the railways.
The old timers recall how they used to travel by a local train from Waltair station to Vizagapatam Town. After passengers used to alight at Waltair Railway Station (present Visakhapatnam Junction), a shuttle, popularly known as ‘duplicate’, with one or two coaches used to take the through passengers from different areas in the Old Town to the local station.
“Almost all originating and terminating trains, except for the Raipur Passenger, used to either start or terminate at Waltair. The Raipur Passenger used to terminate and originate at the Town Station,” recalls E. Nagabushanam, a retired railway staffer.
“A few coaches used to be hauled by a locomotive to the Town Station for the convenience of alighting passengers ” recalls B. Venkateswara Rao, an octogenarian, who had seen the Town Station and Waltair Station in their hay days. “ I was a college student then,” he reminisces.
‘Duplicate’ train
“Students going from the New Colony side to Old Town used to travel by the ‘duplicate’ trains. Citizens going to attend Town Hall meetings, and those going to Gymkhana Grounds to watch football matches used to travel by the trains. Students of Queen Mary’s Girls High School and St. Joseph’s Convent also used to avail of the services,” says Kota Jagadeeswara Rao from Sai Nagar in Marripalem. Though the Vizagapatam Town Station has become defunct long ago, the railway line is still there. After the lease for the premises with the Container Corporation of India (Concor) had expired, the Concor was shifted to its own premises. “It’s time the railways revived the Vizagapatam Town Station asa heritage station on the lines of the Nampalli railway station in Hyderabad,” says Mr. Jagadeeswara Rao.
