Stir delays buses, trains

Hyderabad, Dec. 21: United Andhra and Telangana agitations in the form of rail rokos and rasta rokos have taken toll on passengers commuting between Hyderabad and other cities like Chennai, Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada.

Owing to the ongoing protests, it takes 14 hours to reach Hyderabad from Bengaluru. However, on normal days, the journey period is of 10 hours.

Many of the Rayalaseema-bound trains too are getting delayed due to the antics of protesters, giving no respite to the people opting for trains after the cancellation of several bus services.

“We understand if the agitators disrupt the transport services for one or two days. But, to disrupt these services for weeks is beyond out understanding.” said Ms K. Devi, who came to Hyderabad from Bengaluru.

The south central railway (SCR) officials are trying their level best to run the trains on time despite agitations. The chief public relation of SCR, Ms Chandrima Roy, said, “The situation is normal in the coastal areas. A few incidents of traffic disruptions have been reported in some of the Rayalaseema areas. We hope normalcy will be restored in those areas soon.”

The on-going protests have badly hit APSRTC services in Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. According to officials sources, around 10,000 buses out of 19,500 were confined to bus depots.

The RTC has already incurred a loss of Rs 85 crore, which is likely to cross Rs 150 crore if protests continue for a few more days.

Making merry out of this mess are the taxi drivers, who charge double the amount to travel to other parts of the state from Hyderabad.