Despite the availability of rakes, the launch of three weekly trains announced in the Railway Budget 2012-13 is being delayed for unknown reasons. Passengers of Visakhapatnam region are anxiously awaiting announcement of the maiden run of these trains so that they could begin booking their tickets.
Unfortunately, though the schedule and days of operation of these three weekly ‘regular’ trains has already been announced, the launch dates have not been given by the East Coast Railway (ECoR) so far.
“The rake of train no. 22873 Digha –Visakhapatnam Express, which arrives here on Saturdays, remains idle at the yard till the following Thursday evening. The last trip of train no. 08567 Visakhapatnam – Sainagar Shirdi Special was on June 15, after which the train was discontinued. The rake of this train is lying idle at the coaching complex ever since,” according to reliable sources.
“These two rakes are adequate to start the three weekly trains announced in the present budget. Hence, there is no need to requisition new coaches and the trains can be started immediately. There is also no problem of finding the path as these rakes have their base in Visakhapatnam and the trains would be run by Waltair Division”.
The Visakhapatnam – Digha rake can be utilised for running the 22847/22848 Visakhapatnam – LTT (Mumbai) weekly super fast express, scheduled to leave Visakhapatnam on Sundays and return from Mumbai on Wednesdays. The rake of the Visakhapatnam – Sai Nagar special train can be used to run 22801 Visakhapatnam – Sainagar Shirdi (leaving on Thursdays) and returning as 22802 Sainagar Shirdi – Visakhapatnam on Saturdays. The rest of the days, the rake can be utilised to run the 22869/22870 Visakhapatnam – Chennai weekly express, which is scheduled to leave Visakhapatnam at 7.20 p.m. on Mondays and reach Chennai at 8.55 a.m. on Tuesdays.
The same rake would leave Chennai at 10 p.m. and arrive in Visakhapatnam at 10.25 a.m. on Wednesdays.“A little planning by the railways and proper utilisation of the available rakes will help in clearing the huge waitlist of passengers from Visakhapatnam to various places such as Tirupathi and Bengaluru,” those who have been watching the developments feel.
People’s Representatives should take the initiative and ensure that these trains are launched at an early date.
