Secunderabad Railway Station to spring back to life from June 1

Hyderabad: The Indian Railways announced that it would start running 200 special trains from June 1. In an effort to minimize risk of passengers getting affected by the coronavirus, the South Central Railway decided to operationalise only Platform No 1 and 10 so that passengers would not have to use escalators. Out of the 100 pairing trains, nine trains would originate from South Central Railway jurisdiction. Among them, nine would touch Secunderabad station; three trains would depart from Hyderabad, one from Nizamabad and the remaining from Secunderabad railway Station.

Speaking to The Hans India, Ch Rakesh, Chief Public Relations Officer, SCR said, "Platform No 1 and 10 would be in use from June 1 to avoid the use of escalators. 

Arrangements to deploy more staff at all terminals are underway for sanitization and thermal screening." It would take two-and-a-half hours for 1,200 passengers to exit the railway station after following all the procedure.

Srinivas, Joint General Manager, Indian Railways Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) said that presently, the Secunderabad Station is handling 500 passengers a day. With nine more pairing trains to be pressed into service, arrangement for two more thermal screening is being made. He added, "The State Government is taking care of sanitization and thermal screening of boarding passengers and the State Health Department of exit passengers." There are close to 150 staff manning the station at present and the number would go up from June 1.