Special trains, buses for Sankranti, Sabarimalai

Hyderabad: The South Central Railway and the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation have made special arrangements for passengers in view of the Sankranti Festival and for the benefit of pilgrims of Sabarimalai.

This year, 138 special trains and 2,430 special buses have been arranged by SCR and TSRTC respectively.

The CPRO of South Central Railway, M Umashankar Kumar, told The Hans India that in each train nearly 1,000 passengers could travel. As against 116 trains last year, this year the SCR has made arrangements to operate 138 special trains till January 20.

However, the fare would be increased by 30 per cent for some of the Sankranti special trains. The major destinations to which the trains would run from Hyderabad are Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Tirupati, he added.

As part of the efforts of SCR to go cashless, Umashankar Kumar said that they had installed nearly 130 Point of Sale machines in all the counters at various railway stations.

The PoS machines were very helpful for the people as they would quicken transactions and also there is no problem for railways to return small change.

Meanwhile, officials of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation said that to facilitate passengers who would like to go to their hometown during the festival season, the TSRTC would operate 2,430 special buses.

The passengers would, however, have to pay 50% more than the normal tariff for these special buses.

The official also said that the buses would be operated from the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station, Jubilee Bus Station, CBS, Dilsukhnagar, Uppal, LB Nagar etc. Some travel booking agent points would be arranged for the people living on the outskirts.