VISAKHAPATNAM: With the weekend followed by holidays for Dasara and Muharram, heavy rush was witnessed at the Vizag railway and bus stations on Sunday. With serpentine queues at the railway booking and reservation counters, many passengers were seen waiting for announcement of the next train so that they could manage with general tickets to reach their destinations.
The RTC bus station was milling with passengers heading to their native villages, including Hyderabad and Vijayawada, for Dasara.
The APSRTC and Railways have introduced special trains and buses for the festive season. With the non-availability of buses at the nick of time, many of them had to opt for private vehicles.
“I dare not to enter a train owing to the rush, so I opted to go by bus where I can get at least a chance to sit and travel, but there is no proper information about the timings of buses if we miss one,” said U Ganesh who is heading to Hyderbad.
“Being a long weekend, we have planned for a long trip with a group of friends. Despite the non-availability of seats in most of the trains and buses from Vizag, we have decided to travel by other means and reach Bengaluru,” said Radhakrishna, who is going to Mysore for the Dasara.
Meanwhile, the APSRTC has been operating 50 more special buses besides the usual 50 on October 11 and 12 to meet the rush. These services will be operated to Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Kakinada and Rajamahendravaram from Vizag and other coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh.
“Depending upon the demand, we will add more buses in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram routes,” said G Sudesh Kumar, the RTC regional manager.
The situation at the railway station is scary with passengers finding it difficult to board trains. There are special trains to Hyderabad- with 10 services, 16 services between Kacheguda and Tatanagar via Visakhapatnam, 48 services from Bhubaneswar-Krishnarajpuram- Bhubaneswar Bi-weekly Suvidha special train, 26 services of Suvidha special trains between Sambalpur and Yesvantpur via Rayagada, Visakhapatnam and Renigunta, 38 services of triweekly Suvidha Express between Visakhapatnam and Villipuram, 12 services for Tata Nagar-Visakhapatnam-Tata Nagar special express, 12 services for Visakhapatnam-Tirupati-Visakhapatnam weekly Suvidha special and 12 services for Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam weekly special. According to a railway official, about 25,000 people travel daily and during the festive season the number increases to 35,000 to various destinations.
To meet the rush of air passengers, IndiGo airlines and TruJet have also come up with new flights this month, said Vinod Sharma, the director of Visakhapatnam Airport.