The Railway Board announced a special train on Sunday from Varanasi to Chennai via Warangal and Vijayawada for pilgrims stranded there due to rains, floods and cancellation of trains.
The train will start at 8 p.m. on Monday, reach Warangal at 8.45 p.m. the next day and Vijayawada at 12.45 a.m. and Chennai at 8.10 a.m. the next day.
This was announced by Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of North East G. Kishan Reddy later in the night, after he had requested Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnav to consider running a special train from North India towards Telugu States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as well as Karnataka for devotees stranded at shrines to return safely.
In an official communication, Mr. Reddy said that several devotees from these States had been visiting the holy places in the North especially in and around Varanasi, but got stranded. The Minister said he had spoken to the local administration of Varanasi and realised that a special train covering Secunderabad, Tirupati and Bengaluru, will help in immediate repatriation of large number of devotees to their home towns.
