The international flights from Vizag to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo and Bangkok are said to be doing good business with a high occupancy of around 90 % on an average.
SriLankan Airlines, which operates, four days a week from Vizag to Colombo is drawing excellent response in view of the good onward connections, competitive fare and the low Visa fee.
“SriLankan is offering one night free accommodation in Colombo and free sight-seeing to passengers travelling to onward destinations like London.
The added advantage for passengers from Vizag is that there are onward connections to destinations like Bangkok and Dubai in a matter of a few hours. They can book their luggage in Vizag, get a boarding pass and travel on a single PNR,” says Muralikrishna of TraveliQ, who travelled recently to Colombo.
“One can travel from Vizag to Colombo and back for as low as ₹ 8,000 to ₹ 10,000, if they book early. The airline has various offers till June and this makes it all the more attractive,” he says.
Passengers, who travelled by the A-1 coach in train No. 20811 Visakhapatnam - Nanded Express on April 14, literally went through a nightmare due to bed bugs in bed linen, says a frequent traveller.
Imagine having to pay high AC fare to get bitten by bugs.
Bed bugs were found in berth No. 7 to 10 on that day, he says.
Several complaints are being received from passengers on the poor maintenance of trains originating from Visakhapatnam like the Visakhapatnam-Chennai Express and Visakhapatnam-Bengaluru, regarding rat menace, lack of water, dirty toilets, poor functioning of AC and dusty berths. This, despite Visakhapatnam having all the facility for maintenance of coaches, is irking passengers.
When the issue was brought to his notice on Monday, Divisional Railway Manager Mukul Saran Mathur said efforts were being made to improve the toilets in trains.
B. Madhu Gopal
