Festive atmosphere pervaded the railway station here on Saturday, with people from all sections of society gathered to witness the inaugural of the long pending train service between Nizamabad and Karimnagar.
The place was buzzing with railway officials engrossed in arrangements and journalists and photo journalists moving to catch up images and dignitaries arriving to attend the function.
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Political mileage
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Slogans by TRS and BJP activists claiming the credit for the completion of the 180 kilometre line rent the air.
Minister for Agriculture Pocharam Srinivas Reddy flagged off the 10 bogey Diesel Electrical Multiple Unit (DEMU) train amid the thunderous applause from the gathering. ZP Chairman D. Raju, Mayor Akula Sujatha, MLC Akula Lalitha, MLAs Bigala Ganesh Gupta, V. Prashanth Reddy and A. Jeevan Reddy, Collector Yogitha Rana were among those who attended.
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager B.D. Christopher and Senior Section Engineer Padma Rao attended from the South Central Railways. Earlier, they all watched on screen the launch of the line and train by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu through with the video link from Secunderabad railway station.
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Credit to MP
Atmosphere was charged with emotions for a while as political activists shouted slogans claiming the credit. Sensing trouble the Minister intervened and pacified them saying that the credit goes to all but it could be possible only with the continuous persuasion of Member of Parliament K. Kavitha.
The Minister and other dignitaries boarded the train and went round. After they got down, the train carrying several passengers bound to Karimnagar left the station. According to the railway authorities the train will cover the distance in 3.30 minutes. There are 13 stations between Nizamabad and Peddapalli stations. So far no schedule has been decided by the headquarters and the timings of the train service would be announced as soon as the train schedule was announced, officials said.