The action of the East Coast Railway (ECoR) headquarters in Bhubaneswar in converting the 06580 Tatkal special to 82664 Suvidha special has been brought to the notice of the Railway Ministry.
Ch. V. Rajasekhar, NRI and frequent traveller to India, has mailed a complaint to the Secretary, Ministry of Railways, New Delhi, seeking action against those responsible for changing the train number. He also noted that the booking for 06580 Visakhapatnam-Yesvantpur Tatkal special was not opened till Nov 17 though announcement by the Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Bengaluru, was issued on Nov 11 itself.
He wondered how the train number could be changed and the train from Visakhapatnam converted to Suvidha special even after the Senior DCM, Bengaluru, had announced it as 06580 Tatkal Special. How can one side YPR-VSKP be numbered as 06579 and from the other side as 82664?
How can there be differential fares for the onward and return journeys? How can ECoR authorities breach the press release?
Mr. Rajasekhar sought action against an officer from the ECoR headquarters, who was allegedly working against the interests of Visakhapatnam.
He wanted such sort of monopoly by ECoR to be checked as it was causing frustration to passengers from Visakhapatnam.
He noted that 82831 Sambalpur-Yesvantpur Suvidha and 82841 Bhubaneswar-Krishnarajapuram Suvidha were going vacant because of surge pricing, causing immense revenue loss to the railways.
Interestingly, the South Central Railway (SCR) had also issued a press release on Nov 12 announcing the special as 06580 Visakhapatnam-Yesvantpur as weekly Tatkal special train.
The Railways have conveniently ignored Visakhapatnam junction and even failed to provide a halt at suburban Duvvada for the proposed new weekly Howrah-Ernakulam Antyodaya express (train no. 22877/78) as mentioned in the railway timetable, says Duvvada Railway User’s Association (DRUA) secretary Kanchumurthy Eswar.
Train no. 22877 will stop at Vizianagaram at 5.20 a.m. on Sundays and after that at Rajahmundry at 9.57 a.m.
This train will start at Howrah at 5 p.m. on Saturdays and reaches Ernakulam on Mondays at 6 a.m.
In the return journey, 22878 will start on Tuesdays at 00.25 (early hours) from Ernakulam and reaches Howrah on Wednesdays at 2.50 p.m. This train will stop at 1.25 a.m. (early hours) at Vizianagaram.
As this train will bypass Visakhapatnam junction and does not halt at Duvvada, one has to travel 45 km from Vizag and 75 km from Duvvada to catch it in the early hours.
The absence of DMU/local trains from Visakhapatnam is another problem and the APSRTC buses would not be available at that time, forcing passengers to rely on taxis and autorickshaws. The train will stop at Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Khurda Road and Brahmapur, all under ECoR jurisdiction in Odisha State, which are all much smaller stations compared to Visakhapatnam Junction.
The stoppages are given based on the recommendations of the zonal authorities and the ECoR had conveniently ignored Visakhapatnam junction, he added.
Visakhapatnam MP Kambhampati Haribabu had written to the Railway Minister in the past that a major city could not be ignored by a passing train, just to reduce the running time.
(Reporting By B. Madhu Gopal)
