Not long ago, the inordinate delay in the plying of 06580 Visakhapatnam-Yesvantapur Tatkal Special Express in Visakhapatnam drew a severe criticism from the passengers. But, it appears the problem is yet to be addressed as the Twitterati allege that ‘the East Coast Railway (ECoR) officials are at it again’.
Going by the schedule of the train, being operated by South Western Railway (SWR), it’s convenient to techies from Visakhapatnam region who are working in Bengaluru as they return to their workplaces on Monday morning after spending the weekend in their hometown.
The train leaves Visakhapatnam at 1.45 p.m. on Sundays and reaches Yesvantapur at 8.16 a.m.
The passengers travelling by the Tatkal Special Express allege that this service originating from Visakhapatnam is being deliberately delayed by the Bhubaneswar-based East Coast Railway (E CoR) officials, to give precedence to trains originating from Odisha to Bengaluru, particularly the 12845 Bhubaneswar-Bengaluru Cantt Express.
On July 15 (Sunday), the regular passengers took to their Twitter handles, expressing ire at the ‘lax attitude’ of the E CoR officials as the train was delayed by 35 minutes at the originating station, despite their request to the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) in advance to release the train at the scheduled time.
Action sought
They also tweeted to Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, seeking immediate action against the official concerned for the delay .
It is learnt that the Waltair DRM forwarded the tweet to the Sr. DOM, Waltair. The rail users were irked by the reply of Sr. DOM, who tweeted: “Train late start by 35 min as various in/out regular train are running scheduled right time 18047/18463 and etc. The inconvenience caused to you is deeply regretted.”
‘False info on
social media’
Samuel John Wesley @samuel replied: ‘Sir, Pls. don’t give false information on Twitter 18047 arrive 32 min & 18047 45 min late at VSKP. 06580 is bound to start on time as VSKP originating stn. Due to deliberate mismanagement, 06580 is delayed and now 1 hr, 11 min at Vja Yard”.
On July 8 too, the train was reportedly delayed by more than 2 hours and 25 minutes at Krishnarajapuram station and was further delayed in reaching its destination.
The Twitter users even posted the screenshots of the NTES showing Bhubaneswar-SBC Prashanti Express arriving in Visakhapatnamat at 1.35 p.m., with a delay of 50 minutes, on Sunday. The 18047 Howrah-VSGAmaravathi Express too arrived in the city at 1.10 p.m., with a delay of 40 minutes.
Not for the first time
It may be recalled that in March, 2016, a passenger had complained about how a train, which was stopped at the outer signal at Kancharapalem, was taken in NTES (National Train Enquiry System) and shown as right arrival at Visakhapatnam Junction to mislead the Railway Board officials.
The issue was also reported in this column with the headline: “Trains towards Bhubaneswar are given more importance”
B. Madhu Gopal
