VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada division of the South Central Railway (SCR) is geared up to meet the requirements of stranded passengers in view of heavy rains in Nellore-Padugupadu section resulting in cancellation and diversion of several trains.Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Shivendra Mohan assigned special duty officers at all important stations to closely monitor the situation.
Helplines have been opened at platform number 1 at Vijayawada Railway Station:67055;67075, 0866-27678522; 2767055 and 2767075. At Kavali, food, hot milk and water bottles were arranged through local representatives for 1,000 passengers travelling in train no. 22817 Howrah-Mysore Express by B Prasada Rao, CTI/COR Station on Saturday night.
Senior commercial inspector (Ongole Section) N Sagar and commercial staff voluntarily contacted NGOs, voluntary organisations and sewa samitis in and around Ongole and Chirala to provide relief to the stranded passengers.At Chirala, a total of 2,500 packets of food items and 2,000 water packets were distributed to around 1,500 passengers of train no. 12841 Howrah-Chennai Central Coromandel Express.
At Ongole, 1,000 packets of tamarind rice, curd rice and 3,000 water bottles were supplied by Ongole MP M Srinivas Reddy and distributed to passengers of train no. 22807 Santragachi-Chennai Central and train no.17479 Puri-Tirupati Express.Officials and staff are carrying out the restoration work on war footing to restore train operations at the earliest. Staff was deployed in full strength at all railway stations to assist the stranded passengers.
SCR officials urge passengers to stay on alert
The SCR officials have appealed to the passengers to plan their rail journeys keeping in view the heavy rains. The officials urged them to check details of the trains before undertaking the journey