Passengers travelling by Duronto Express from Secunderabad to Visakhapatnam had a harrowing experience at the fag end of their journey on Tuesday.
The premium train, operated by the South Central Railway (SCR), is the fastest between the biggest cities of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
It arrived more or less on time, but was detained for 50 minutes about a km away from the main railway station.
Adding insult to injury, three trains operated by the East Coast Railway (ECoR) and one by the SCR were allowed to pass even as the premium train waited for allocation of a platform.
“The train reached Kancherapalem outer signal at 6.10 a.m. Even as we were watching, Visakhapatnam-Rayagada Passenger crossed us at 6.15 a.m., Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad Janmabhoomi Express at 6.35 a.m., Visakhapatnam-Nizamuddin Samata Express at 6.45 a.m., and Chennai-Puri Express at 6.55 a.m.,” Ganapathi, who was travelling along with his family, complained.
A relative waiting at the railway station to receive them said that the train was initially listed to arrive on Platform No. 8. A little while later, the platform number was dropped from the display, he said. Just as the train was chugging in, it was announced that the train would arrive on Platform No. 6.
Harrowing timeSenior citizens and women carrying luggage had to struggle walking up the narrow foot-overbridge on Platform Nos. 6/7 as there was no lift.
“Platform No. 4 was empty at the time and this (Duronto) being a premium train, it should have been given preference and allotted to Platform No. 1 or Platform No. 8 for the convenience of passengers. I paid Rs.1,200 to travel in 3 AC by this train. I would have paid half the amount to travel by Garibrath,” said another passenger, and demanded that the issue be probed by the Railways.
When the issue was brought to his notice, Divisional Railway Manager Anil Kumar attributed the detention to a technical problem and ruled out lack of coordination between ECoR and SCR as had happened in the case of the Kakinada Passenger recently.
