Trains to Seemandhra saw 20% rise in passengers, bus traffic went up by 40%
Picture for representational purpose (Photo: DC archives)
Hyderabad: The twin cities have witnessed an exodus of nearly 3 lakh Andhra-bound voters towards Seemandhra districts, especially Praka-sam, Guntur, Krishna and East and West Godavari districts, in the last three days.
Huge rush was witnessed at bus stations and railway platforms on Monday, which picked up on the early hours of Tuesday.
Though the Railways have been running trains with extra coaches to clear the rush, on Tuesday morning, the first train towards Vishakhapatnam, Janmabhoomi Express, saw such a huge rush at the Secunderabad station that 67 passengers could not board the train.
The passengers, who staged a dharna at the station, were sent on the next train on the same tickets.
Seemandhra bound trains saw a 20 per cent increase in passengers while the bus traffic witnessed a 30-40 per cent increase.
APSRTC (Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation) operated 250 extra buses on Monday and 600 additional buses on Tuesday to cope with the rush.
The maximum rush from the twin cities was towards Prakasam, Guntur, Krishna, East Godavari and West Godavari districts.
“We are seeing heavy rush towards these districts since Monday. On Tuesday, very heavy rush was seen since 10 am in the morning and it continued throughout the day,” said a senior official from APSRTC.
“On the Vijayawada side of the bus platform, people were seen sitting atop buses in the early hours of the day, as they were going completely full. Most passengers left late evening on Monday and early on Tuesday morning to reach their destinations on time,” said Mr Yedaiah, a vendor at the MGBS bus station.
A special train, along with other Seemandhra bound trains like Janmabhoomi Express, Guntur Intercity, Konark Express and East Coast Express, were completely full when they left the station in the city.
“There was such a huge rush on the platform that many passengers could not board their trains. There were announcements being made that even if one train was missed, they could board the next train and many passengers only managed to board on their second attempts,” said Guntur bound passenger Ramana Rao.
“As per our assessment there has been a 20 to 25 per cent increase in traffic although the exact figures will come only on Wednesday. There have been more than 1 lakh additional passengers over the last three days. We have moved staff from other stations in the city and camped them at the Secunderabad Railway Station due to the huge rush,” said South Central Railway chief public relations officer Sambasiva Rao.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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