Title - Trains delayed due to interlocking works

Trains coming into and going out of Visakhapatnam were delayed by a couple of hours due to interlocking works taken up at Gopalapatnam on Monday. To make matters worse, a clash between two groups on train no. 16324 Shalimar – Trivandrum Express at Marripalem Halt compounded the problem.A group of unreserved passengers were coming by a reserved coach from Odisha and West Bengal.Ayyappa devotees, who had reserved their tickets, boarded the coach at Visakhapatnam and asked the ‘unreserved passengers’ to vacate their berths. The devotees became furious, when the unreserved passengers, who were mostly daily-wage earners, refused to vacate the berths.The two groups clashed with each other and when the train stopped at Marripalem Halt, the ‘unreserved passengers’ were made to alight by the TTEs. When the train started a few minutes late, some of them threw stones at the Ayyappa devotees.Government Railway Police (GRP) Inspector G. Venu Gopal and his team brought the situation under control.The Inspector said that the Koraput-Visakhapatnam train was stopped at Marripalem and the daily wage earners were sent to the Visakhapatnam Railway Station so that they could board another train there.A clash between two groups in a train at Marripalem halt has compounded the problem