Trains, buses running chock-a-block

Visakhapatnam: There is no accommodation in trains and buses from Visakhapatnam to various other places till January 19 on Sankranti festival. There is no reservation available in almost all long-distance trains such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad Tirupati and Vijayawada. Even in RTC also, there is no reservation available from Visakhapatnam to other places till January 17 in regular services.

Thanks to ‘PeddaPandaga,’ the Sankranti festival. According to railways, the Indian railway had arranged some special trains to clear the extra rush of passengers, which is not meeting the huge demand of passengers.

The APSRTC has arranged 69 special services from January 9 to 16 from Visakhapatnam to Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Vijayawada on Sankranti special fare.

The salaried class people are facing tough time to go to their native place along with their family for Sankranti vacation. With huge demand, the private operators almost doubled bus fares to various places from Visakhapatnam.

Even, all the private bus operators are saying there is no accommodation till January 15. “Even the Sankranti holidays announced from January 12, the APSRTC arranged special services from January 9 to Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and other places to clear the extra rush of passengers. We are arranging 69 special services to Kakinada, Srikakulam and Rajahmundry during Sankranti holidays.

The special services including 34 to Hyderabad, 33 to Vijayawada, one each to Bengaluru and Chennai in addition to regular services. Over 80 percent of reservations in special services were already over till January 11 and over 95 percent reservations of seats booked on January 12.

Due to huge demand between Vijayawada- Rajahmundry-Visakhapatnam, the RTC is operating 140 buses in peak days. For return journey, the RTC had decided run more services on January 16,17 and January 20-21 between Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad,”RTC Regional Manager G Sudesh Kumar told Th Hans India.

The APSRTC which is already running tourism package services to Araku and Lambasingi hilly destinations with a fare of Rs 525, now plans to start Bhadhrachalam and Papikondalupackage including boat service with a fare of Rs 1,300 to Rs 1,500 per head from city during Pongal holidays.

There is no reservation available in regular services. The illiterates and common people are not able to book tickets through online must wait in long queues for special services. People are expressing displeasure over special fare in RTC services and demanding it to run special services also on regular fares.

"The booking for special buses to Tirupati are not available in online and there is no accommodation in the trains. The special trains being arranged by the railways are in odd timings. Those special trains are not suitable for salaried employees, N Kameswara Rao, a VPT employee lamented.

By PhaniSuni