Even as the East Coast Railway authorities have agreed to send proposals seeking extension of Godavari, Garibrath, Tirumala and LTT Express trains up to Vizianagaram, in response to the demand of MP P. Ashok Gajapati Raju, some activists well-versed with the functioning of the railways dubbed it as a ploy to bereft Visakhapatnam city further of berth quotas.
If at all, the railway Board agrees to the proposals, these trains will be further extended to Bhubaneswar in a phased manner as was done in the past, reducing the berth quotas for Visakhapatnam, they opine.
At the recent Divisional Committee meet, Mr. Ashok Gajapati Raju sought that the Godavari, Garibrath, Tirumala and LTT Express up to Vizianagaram for the benefit of the passengers there.
In response, ECoR General Manager Umesh Singh and DRM Mukul Saran Mathur promised to send the proposals to the Railway Board for consideration.
‘No parking facilities’
“How can they send the proposals knowing that there are no adequate coaching and parking facilities at Viziangaram? On the plea of platform constraints and lack of coaching facilities at Vizianagaram, they will extend the trains to Bhubaneswar. Similar incidents have happened in the past,” says an RTI activist.
Citing examples, he says, the Visakhapatam-Secunderabad Visakha Express, was first extended to Vizianagaram, then to Palasa and subsequently to Bhubaneswar.
Similarly, the Vijayawada–Visakhapatnam Passenger was first extended to Vizianagaram and then to Rayagada. It was recently extended to Guntur and was converted into an Express train. “When two trains can’t be maintained at Vizianagaram, how can they consider four trains? The first step would be to move them out of Visakhapatnam and subsequently take them to Odisha on the plea of lack of facilities. In the entire episode, it is Visakhapatnam which will suffer reduction of berth quotas,” he explains.
Growing resentment
It may be recalled that the recent proposal of South Central Railway (SCR) to extend 12738/40 Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad Garib Rath and 17239/40 Guntur-Visakhapatnam-Guntur Simhadri Express to Khurda Road has drawn resentment from passengers on the social media.
This led the ECoR authorities say there has been no such proposal. The contradictory assurance given to the Vizianagaram MP at the Divisional Committee meet, reflects the real intentions of the ECoR authorities, the RTI activist alleges. The delay in the declaration of the new railway zone with headquarters in Visakhapatnam by the NDA government is resulting in gross injustice to the region, he adds.