HYDERABAD: One of the biggest railway stations in the country, Secunderabad railway station which sees bustling activity with trains ferrying around 2 lakh passengers daily, rocked with protests on Friday. Every day, Secunderabad railway station witnesses about 255 trains including superfast, express, passenger and MMTS trains arriving and departing from here. However, except a couple of trains like Secunderabad - Guntur Intercity express, which departed at 7.40 am, all trains starting 8 am have either been canceled or diverted to Charlapally and Kacheguda railway stations.
Soon after a large number of protestors gathered at the railway station and attacked trains like East Coast Express, Ajantha Express and Duronto Express, South Central Railway (SCR) cancelled/ diverted several trains to avoid any further untoward incidents. As per estimation by authorities, there could be a property loss of Rs 30 crores.
During the protests, parcel van, one general compartment was completely burnt with fire, in Rajkot Express, all the AC window glasses were broken, in Ajanta Express, one general coach, SLR coach of guard and windows of AC first class coach were broken glass, in Raipur - Secunderabad Express, windows were broken, MMTS heading to Linamgampally was damaged and in Duronto Express, bed rolls were burnt. Locomotive engines were also set on fire by protestors.
A total of 28 mail/ express trains which have been cancelled include Hyderabad - Shalimar East Coast Express, Secunderabad - Thiruvananthapuram Sabari Express, Secunderabad - Howrah Falaknuma Express, Secunderabad - Danapur Express, Secunderabad - Sainagar Shirdi Express, Secunderabad - Bhubaneswar Visakha Express and Secunderabad - Tirupati Seven Hills Express. This apart, as many as 70 MMTS services going towards Lingampally, Faluknama and Hyderabad were also cancelled.
SCR General Manager (In charge), Arun Kumar Jain said officials have been directed to be on high alert and depute additional man power and facilitate stranded passengers. He instructed security officials to deploy additional force and maintain constant vigil at the railway station.
AK Gupta, Secunderabad Divisional Railway Manager said that due to agitations, four coaches were completely damaged and 30 were partially damaged. “In the event of protests, seven locomotive engines were also damaged. There was a diesel engine in the station, if that caught fire, the damage would be unimaginable,” he said.