Kindling collective spirit for a public cause, ‘Nekonda Town Railway Tickets Forum’, a WhatsApp group formed by a clutch of denizens of Nekonda town in Warangal district, is spearheading a campaign to ensure continuation of the stoppage given for Secunderabad-Guntur intercity superfast express at Nekonda railway station by the Railway Board on an experimental basis.
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Interestingly, some of the members of the group from different walks of life pooled in money to buy tickets at the local railway station without boarding the train with the sole intention to accomplish their mission – to retain the experimental halt given to the intercity express train at Nekonda railway station.
The aim of the WhatsApp group is to create awareness among all sections of people about the “experimental stoppage” provided by the Railway Board for 12705/12706 Guntur-Secunderabad express at Nekonda railway station since January 31 this year, and to enable commuters make use of the facility optimally. The initiative, according to the active members of the WhatsApp group, is mutually beneficial as it helps augment revenue for Railways and check the menace of ticketless travel.
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Going a step ahead, some of the members of the group volunteered to buy the train tickets to sponsor free travel for poor people in the intercity express. The underlying logic behind this initiative is to promote sale of train tickets at the Nekonda railway station to meet the stipulated criteria for continuation of the “experimental halt” given to the intercity express for both ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ directions, sources added. Railway sources said that the norms envisage various operational and commercial viability factors such as sale of the prescribed minimum number of tickets to recover the cost of halt.
According to sources, the Railway Board issued instructions to the staff concerned to keep a close watch at the sale of tickets at the railway station for review. Nekonda railway station is located on the Secunderabad-Kazipet-Vijayawada section of the South Central Railways, one of the high-traffic density routes, said G. Venkatanarayana, a local trader and an active member of the WhatsApp group.
People from five mandals comprising more than 200 villages including many tribal habitations use Nekonda railway station to commute to various destinations such as Secunderabad, Vijayawada and Guntur. It is imperative to continue the halt for the intercity express to cater to the daily commuting needs of employees, students, farmers and labourers among others, he insisted.
Nekonda mandal is a hub of paddy, chilli and cotton production and it has one of the biggest FCI godowns in the erstwhile composite Warangal district, he noted. “We request the railway authorities to retain the stoppage given to the intercity express and provide a halt for Satavahana express and Navjeevan express and also stoppage for Padmavathi express and Gautami express in ‘Down’ directions in Nekonda railway station,” said T. Venugopal Reddy, an advocate of Nekonda.
Nekonda is the nearest railway station to the famous Annaram Sharif Dargah in neighbouring Parvathagiri mandal, noted another member of the WhatsApp group saying the pilgrimage site attracts devotees of all faiths from far and wide. “We will take forward the campaign to retain the halt for intercity express at Nekonda by giving wide publicity to the facility. We have created a corpus through voluntary donations to sustain the campaign till our goal is achieved,” he asserted.