Commuters demand more trains to Seema region

Aantapur-Puttaparthy: There are innumerable trains operated by East Coast Railways and South Central Railways between Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam while the one and only one train that runs between two metro cities is Prashanti express from Bengaluru (Karnataka) to Bhuvaneshwar-Bengaluru. Introduced in November 1998, the train today is in heavy demand. The Rayalaseema and Coastal districts people heavily depend upon this train to carry on their textile and fisheries products.

Post 2000, the demand for the train grew in leaps and bounds with the IT sector making rapid strides in the South India. The Prashanti express originally was introduced only for Visakhapatnam to Bengaluru. Later it was extended up to Bhubaneshwar to benefit even Orissa and MP states. For the past 25 years, the demand for the train tripled beyond its capacity of nearly 1,600 passengers. Today it still remains the only train that connects the Electronics city of Bengaluru and the steel city of Visakhapatnam.

The train traverses through the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa touching even parts of Madhya Pradesh. The train in all 365 days always runs beyond its capacity with atleast 1,000 members in waiting list at any given time on a daily basis apart from the tatkal waiting list. Tatkal which was supposed to be an answer to the demand factor lost its sheen with huge waiting list, thus defeating the very purpose of it. Those who fail to get a berth in tatkal are now forced to shell out money three times more than reservation ticket to get the premium tatkal reservation, thus making a mockery of very concept of people's train services.The grouse of people against the Railways is that it is commercialising travel and serving the moneyed class by introducing premium tatkal. After all, those who can afford premium tatkal can as well opt for flight travel. The premium tatkal quota should be scrapped and the same should be made available to people in the normal reservation process.

From the Bengaluru side, thousands of commuters travel every day from Bengaluru to Visakhapatnam and even to Bhubaneshwar from the IT sector alone. The parents of the IT personnel and their close family members travel between the two metros and not to speak of even Vijayawada city. Many board and alight at multiple coastal and Rayalaseema towns. Besides, hundreds from the textile hub of Anantapur district travel on a regular basis to Vizag to sell their handloom produce.

Though several people demand from for introduction at least one more train between Vizag and Bengaluru touching Anantapur and Kurnool districts, it is totally ignored. Once again Tirupati route is well connected while Anantapur district is ignored. Travelers Association president Suresh Babu told The Hans India that it is apathetic on the part of Railways to ignore the demand for last 20 years. Railways, which has prioritised boosting of freight traffic revenue is failing to give same weightage to welfare of passengers.

How can one region and route be neglected for more than two decades when they pretty well know the pressure for reservation tickets from every station in South Central Railway to Bengaluru touching core Rayalaseema districts. Raguram Patnaik, a regular business traveler from Anantapur to Vizag on textile business, advises the Railways to extend the Kondaveedu express with numbers 17211/12 from Yeshwanthpur to Machilipatnam to Visakhapatnam which will be a great boon to those, who travel in the route touching 3 states.

Rail Passenger Associations are demanding the extension of train no 17215/16 Dharmavaram-Vijayawada train upto Vizag. If these two trains are extended to Visakhapatnam, the woes of passengers will end. These trains extension is crucial as Vizag is being tipped to be the administrative capital of AP. In that case, the Dharmavaram train can start from Bengaluru instead of Dharmavaram being the starting point.