Agnipath protests hits train services in AP, Odisha, many cancelled/diverted
The violent protests at Hyderabad have caused serious disruption in train services in the East Coast Railway for the second day on Saturday.
image for illustrative purpose
Visakhapatnam The violent protests at Hyderabad have caused serious disruption in train services in the East Coast Railway for the second day on Saturday.
Commuters faced untold miseries due to cancellation of trains as they had to explore alternate mode of transport to attend to their works.
Trains passing through Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Bhubaneswar have either been cancelled or diverted/partially terminated to prevent any untoward incident. Police forces and GRP personnel have been deployed at various vulnerable points to prevent protests over recruitment into three services on a four-year contract under the newly announced Agnipath scheme.
Some trains including 22807 Santragachi-MGR Chennai Central Express, 12840 Chennai Central-Howrah Mail, 13351 Dhanbad-Allepey Bokaro Express, 18048 Vasco Da Gama-Howrah Express, 12889 Tata-Yasvantpur weekly express, 17242 Guntur-Rayagada Express, 12664Tirucharapalli-Howrah Weekly Express and 18464KSR-Bangalore-Bhubaneswar Prashanti Express were were run on a diverted route via Duvvada on city outskirts without touching Visakhapatnam on Saturday.
According to a spokesman for Waltair Railway Division, in view of suspected agitation at Visakhapatnam railway station and agitations at various zones, several trains were cancelled and few were diverted or rescheduled.
The cancelled trains include 18045 Shalimar-Secunderabad East Coast Express, leaving Shalimar on Sunday,,17240 Visakhapatnam-Guntur Express leaving Visakhapatnam on Saturday, train No. 17239 Guntur-Visakhapatnam Express leaving Guntur on Sunday have been cancelled. Train No. 17267 Kakinada-Visakhapatnam leaving Visakhapatnam and train No. 17268 Visakhapatnam-Kakinada leaving Visakhapatnam on Saturday were cancelled. Train No. 18527 Rayagada-Visakhapatnam Express leaving Rayagada on Sunday has also been cancelled.
Meanwhile, Divisional Railway Manager Anup Kumar Satpathy appealed to all not to cause any damage to Railway properties and cause any disruption to train and goods service, no which many were dependent.
