The railways will introduce new trains wherever there is genuine passenger demand, Union minister of state for railways Kotla Surya Prakash Reddy has said.
Flagging off new weekly trains to Shalimar (Kolakata) and Madurai here on Tuesday, Reddy said that to ease the pressure on the Secunderabad station and to avoid detention of trains at signals, setting up of additional rail terminals on the city outskirts would be considered as done in Delhi.
Reddy said safety of passengers on running trains and gradation of passenger amenities and modernisation of railway stations were other priority areas for the railways.
Claiming that the SCR zone had been getting a large number of trains in the recent past, he said 23 new trains were announced in this year’s railway budget and they would be introduced this year in a phased manner.
SCR general manager DP Pande said more than 400 summer specials were being run to clear extra rush, and lifts and escalators were being provided at major stations. He explained the measures being taken by SCR to improve train services and provide better amenities to passengers.
An amount of Rs 35 crore was spent on passenger amenities at the city’s three rail terminals _ Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Kacheguda and works worth another Rs 29 crore were in the pipeline, he added.