VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada Division of the South Central Railway is set to face the mother of all challenges in providing rail transportation facilities to the lakhs of people attending the 12-day-long ‘Godavari Maha Pushkarams at Rajahmundry and elsewhere in East and West Godavarri districts from July 14. The railways are bracing to transport 35 lakh pilgrims to Rajahmundry alone, which works out to roughly 80 per cent of the total number of people arriving there for taking the holy dip in the river.
The railways have gone through a fine-toothed comb on what should be done to ensure that the passengers do not miss out on any aspect of the Pushkarams by enabling them to reach Rajahmundry or Godavari or Kovuru station without any trouble. In this regard, the railwas has provided additional platforms, foot overbridges and restrooms and other amenities at the three stations, which are small.
Vijayawada divisional railway manager Ashok Kumar, in an interview with this correspondent, explained the measures his division had taken to handle the mammoth rush during the Pushkarams.
He said: “We are running 503 special trains during the Pushkarams in addition to the existing 110 trains. We have worked out the finer details of the operational aspects so that there will not be any bunching of trains and the plans that we have evolved ensure free movement of all the trains. We are also adding 462 extra coaches to the existing trains. These measures should enable us to handle the additional rush,” he said adding: “To de-choke the lines, we may not operate freight trains carrying goods which were not urgently required -- for instance, cement. But other goods like coal, fertilisers and perishables will have to be moved. We will also be not taking up track maintenance works during this period which will give us a bonus of three hours of de-choking of the lines.”
The railways are trying to overcome technical difficulties in taking all the trains on the line that touches Kovuru station, on both up and down routes between Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. Usually, the trains bound for Visakhapatnam from Vijayawada will not touch Godavari but the trains that are bound for Vijayawada from Visakhapatnam do touch Godavari. “As the main ghat - Pushkar Ghat - abuts the platform No: 2 of the Godavari station, we are trying to run as many trains as possible through Godavari station in both the directions,” the DRM said.
Pushkarams had come as a god-send for Rajahmundry, Godavari and Kovuru railway stations as they have got a massive facelift. “The Rajahmundry station now has five platforms -- an increase of two platforms -- two air-conditioned waiting halls -- one of them exclusively for woman passengers -- five more water coolers in addition to the existing 12 and a 250 kva diesel generation plant for use in case of a power outage. The plant can power the entire station,” he added.
He said that The Godavari station now had a new FOB in addition to a renovated underpass for the movement of passengers between the two platforms. “The movement of passengers between the two platforms will be unidirectional. Those who want to reach Platform No: 2 from Platform No: 1 will have to use the FOB and those on Platform No: 2 should use the underpass to reach Platform No 1. Once the passengers exit from platform No: 2 and take a holy dip in the river, they will not be re-enter Platform No: 2 but have take a detour to enter platform No: 1 and from there go to Platform No: 2 if they want,” he explained.
“We have taken this measure to ensure that there is no stampede which has to be avoided at any cost because the number of passengers will be quite high. We have taken care of three manmade catastrophes - stampede, bomb blasts and fire. We have set up extra number of CCTV cameras at Rajahmundry, Godavari and Kovur stations to keep a close watch on mischief-makers. Similarly, measures have been taken to prevent any fire mishap,” the DRM said.
“As the pilgrims will be arriving in droves, the existing number of bathing facilities will not be enough. That is the reason why we have set up 10 temporary sheds with flourescent lights and toilet facilities at the Rajahmundry station, eight at the Godavari station and two at the Kovuru station. These structures will be dismantled after the ‘Pushkaralu’ is over,” the DRM said.
He said that there would be 60 additional booking counters at all the three stations. They would be located near the exit points of the stations. In Rajahmundry, there would be seven additional exit points in addition to the exiting seven. At these points, ATVMS (automatic ticket vending machines) would be kept for the convenience of the passengers. The railway staff would help anyone who found it difficult to operate the ATVMS, he said.
The DRM sais that 1,500 railway staff were being mobilised from various stations for serving the pilgrims at the three stations. As far as the measures to prevent thefts were concerned, the railways were positioning 500 RPF and 1,500 GRPF staff both on the trains and the at the railway stations. “We have not overlooked anything. We are confident that we will be able to handle the rush of pilgrims,” the DRM asserted.