VIJAYAWADA: It is likely that day-journey double-decker air-conditioned train service may be introduced between Visakhapatnam and Tirupati in the near future.
With Kacheguda-Tirupati and Kacheguda-Guntur double-decker trains not having enough patronage, a proposal has been sent to the South Central Railway General Manager and to the East Coast Railway general manager for discontinuing the two services from Kacheguda and run them between Visakhapatnam and Tirupati as day trains.
According to Visakhapatnam MP K Haribabu, the railways said they cannot run the double-decker trains at night as there is no sleeper facility in them. On this, the MP had requested the railways to provide two more rakes and run them between Visakhapatnam and Tirupati as day journey trains on a daily basis.
“The proposal is before the railways. There is an in-principle agreement for running them between Visakhapatnam and Tirupati,” Hari Babu said, in an interaction with mediapersons here on Friday.
Railway Zone Awaits Central Clearance
As regards the proposal for creation of a Railway Zone for Andhra Pradesh, he said at the railway ministry level it has been cleared. Since creation of railway zone involves an investment of `100 crore, the proposal has to be placed before the Central Cabinet. “I hope it would be cleared very soon,” the Visakhapatnam MP said.
Though the expert committee constituted by the railways had submitted a report saying that creation of the railway zone was not financially viable, the Centre is keen on creation of the zone as it has been promised in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. As AP has four railway divisions - Vijayawada, Guntur, Guntakal (SC Zone) and Visakhapatnam (East Coast Zone), they could be grouped into one zone with Visakhapantam as headquarters.
Hari Babu said that the location of head-quarters at Visakhapatnam was justified on the grounds that the demand for the zone originated in Visakhapatnam when the Visakhapatnam division was brought under East Coast Railway and all the trains originating from Vizag were made to originate from Bhubaneswar.