The initiative taken by the railways authorities to ply more services to clear passenger rush this summer vacation season appears to be far from the adequate as all trains plying from Visakhapatnam to Tirupati, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and others are running to their full capacities.

Unfortunately, the authorities do not seem to realise the importance of augmenting coaches and introducing special trains and increasing their frequency.

The special trains, introduced long ago, are extended by a month or two, but they do not suffice if the ground reality is any indication.

Sample this. The South Central Railway (SCR) has recently announced weekly 07487/88 air-conditioned special trains between Tirupati and Visakhapatnam which will be plied via Eluru in West Godavari district.

The train would be operated on Sundays from Tirupati and on Mondays from Visakhapatnam during July.

The SCR says that the special trains are meant to clear the passenger rush during the summer season.

But by the time this train is introduced, the summer vacation would come to an end and monsoon would have set in.

Passengers also opine that increasing the frequency of the special trains and introducing more sleeper coaches in the existing trains would be helpful to those who are unable to get accommodation in regular trains.

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The ‘poor maintenance’ of the Visakhapatnam – New Delhi – Visakhapatnam Andhra Praesh AC Express, the only originating train from Visakhapatnam with LHB coaches, is drawing the ire of passengers on the social media.

A passenger posted on Twitter pictures of a broken glass window pane replaced with a cardboard sheet, and that of the poorly maintained B 4 (3rd AC) coach of 22415 on April 21.

Another passenger tweeted on the non-functional AC in the A 4 (2nd AC) coach of 22415 on April 26.

There are complaints galore on the use of old coaches from other railway divisions being used for this train.

The coaches are said to be infested with rats and mosquitoes, giving nightmares to passengers. The contract for undertaking pest control at coach maintenance depot has been given to a private contractor.

Now, the officials of Waltair Division have decided to do away with the posts of ‘assistant’ in the AC coaches.

“In the absence of an assistant, the lone AC mechanic has to run around three AC coaches, attending to the complaints from passengers to increase or decrease the ‘cooling’ temperature.

In the event of a breakdown in one of the coaches, the mechanic will not even have an assistant top help him out while he attends to the problems,” said an raliways officials requesting anonymity.

B. Madhu Gopal