Vijayawada: Lakhs of people moving to their Native places for the Sankranti festival, catching trains from the Vijayawada railway station to several destinations in Andhra Pradesh and other states.
Trains were packed with people purchasing tickets and boarding the vehicles regardless of whether they had reservations or not. Unlike the usual 80,000 to 1 lakh crowd that usually throng the railway station, officials said there was at least one lakh more, considering the festive season.
The South Central Railway had, by arranging special trains and augmenting carrying capacity in scheduled trains, ensured that a minimum of one lakh additional berths were made available. Yet, it did not appear to be enough for people.
Platforms at Vijayawada railway station were packed, what with people running around and checking out every available source for a confirmed ticket. Waiting halls were full too with people waiting for emergency quotas to be released.
Special trains ran full. “I do not know why railways-run the trains with fewer coaches showing a cause of special trains,” said M. Bhavani Prasad, who was going to Vishakapatnam with his family. “It’s too much; SC railway is collecting double charge for the Platform tickets in the festival time. When we came to send anybody it’s become a problem,” said Mantapala, a farmer, Yanamalakuduru village.
“Trains are very rush, many of the passengers are changing at the gates, it creates tension to travel without reservation, many people are entering into the coaches without reservation though, that was a reserved coach sticker,” said Prabhakara Sarma, a teacher, Ongole, who came to take his son from a private college hostel. In order to clear extra rush of passengers during Sankranti festival season, 32 special Humsafar, Suvida trains are running from Hyderabad to Kakinada Town, Kakinada Town to Secunderabad, Secunderabad to Narsapur, Hyderabad – Kochuveli – Hyderabad, Kacheguda-Bhubaneswar- Kacheguda and Secunderabad-Gudur.
