Visakhapatnam: With hordes of people heading to their native places and Vijayawada to celebrate Dasara, the bus station and railway station in the city is packed to the brim. There are no seats or berths available for latecomers. The special trains and buses operated by the railways and APSRTC for the festival are woefully inadequate and many have had to opt for private vehicles or touts to get confirmed tickets. All the major trains and buses operating from Vizag were filled several weeks ago.
On Saturday, heavy rush was witnessed at both at the railway station and bus station in Visakhapatnam and several passengers were seen stranded in the stations waiting for announcement of special buses/trains.
Speaking to this correspondent, Mr Madhu, a passenger who was heading to Kakinada on Saturday, rued about lack of information of the timing of the next bus. “As all the buses are running full, the officials announced a special bus service but we don’t know when that will be,” he said.
APSRTC, deputy chief traffic manager G. Satyanarayana explained that they had been operating several special buses to meet the demand and added that the special services would start from October 18. But currently, they have been operating special buses to Chennai, Bengaluru and Tirupati which have not been able to accommodate the massive influx of passengers.
On the other hand, the situation is just as bad in the railway stations with passengers finding it difficult to get into the train. But the railway authorities informed they were running special trains to handle the rush.
