Rajahmundry: With the green signal given by the Railway Board and approval in Parliament during the 2013 rail Budget, the Kakinada-MumbaiExpress train will be on the rails either from the first or second week of February.
According to sources, the train with 17 AC non-AC and general compartments will start at Kakinada town at 9.45 am and reach Mumbai Chatrapati Sivaji Terminal( CST) by around 12 noon the next day.
En route it covers Rajahmundry, Nidadavole, Eluru, Vijayawada, Guntur, Nadikudi, Bibinagar and reach Hyderabad and from there to Mumbai via Pune. It will be a bi-weekly express on Wednesdays and Saturdays and the journey time will be around 26 hours.
On its return journey, the train starts at Mumbai after two hours of its reaching time on Thursday and reach Kakinada the next day.
The train again starts at Kakinada on Saturday and reach Mumbai on Sunday. On its return, the train starts at Mumbai CST the same day and reach its destination by Monday evening.
Several organisations, particularly those in trade, hailed it as fulfilling of a long-cherished desire of the people of coastal districts, particularly those from Godavari districts.
Welcoming the introduction of the new train, Rajahmundry Chamber of Commerce president Ashok Kumar Jain said that particularly the cloth traders will be benefited as Mumbai is known as the commercial capital of India and is a major centre for cloth trade. Apart from this, the burden on Konark Express will lessen to some extent in reaching Mumbai from these parts of the state, he felt.
The East Godavari Kirana and Provision Merchants Association president Boda Ravi Kuamr has said that apart from the trading community, the direct train from these parts will help the student community immensely not only for employment opportunities but for education purposes also.
Andhra University MSN Post-Graduate Centre, Kakinada, head of the department of English, Prof. Rajendra Karmarkar, observed that this train on introduction will provide an opportunity for the students of higher studies to travel to Mumbai at frequent intervals within short notice.
The Bombay University, which was established in 1858, provides study material from the archives for the needs of the students, particularly for research scholars, Prof. Karmarkar added.
East Godavari and Cocanada Town Passengers Association president and South Central Railway Rail Users Consultative Committee member Y.D. Rama Rao said that the final decision of date of operation of the services are yet to be finalised and they are hoping that it would be either first or second week of February as discussed at the meeting organsied at Secunderabad a few days ago with the railway authorities.
