RailEnquiry

More than seven months after Union Minister of State for Railways Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy had announced at a public function in Visakhapatnam that a halt would be provided for 12739/40 Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad Garibrath at Duvvada, the Railway Board now says: “there is no such proposal, at present, to provide a stoppage to the train at Duvvada.”People’s representatives of Visakhapatnam had been submitting representations to the Waltair Division authorities in this regard for the past few years and the same were reportedly forwarded to the East Coast Railway (E Co R) Zone headquarters in Bhubaneswar.

Surprise over reply

The reply was given by the Director T.T./Coaching-I Railway Board Ravi Mohan Sharma in response to the clarification sought by the Duvvada Railway User’s Association secretary K. Eswar under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.Mr. Eswar expressed surprise at the reply after the Railway Minister made the announcement at a public function and a spate of representations from Gajuwaka MLA Ch. Venkata Ramaiah and others had been sent and were acknowledged by the Railway authorities over the years. Interestingly, the same train has been provided halts at Tuni and Tadepalligudem by the South Central Railway (SCR) this year.

He felt that the long-pending demand for provision of a halt for Garib Rath at Duvvada was not discussed at the Indian Railway Time Table Committee (IRTTC) meeting. He described it as ‘negligence’ of E Co R and also the Railway Board for not considering the assurance given by the MoS at a public function.

Station upgraded

Mr. Eswar said that Duvvada Station was upgraded from ‘E’ to ‘B’ based on passenger earnings and identified as ‘Adarsh Station’ in 2012. The station is an important inter-change point between two railway zones, i.e. E Co R and SCR and serves the needs of about nine lakh people of the industrial belt and surrounding areas.

Normally, in all major cities trains stop at all the local stations for the convenience of passengers. A ‘2-minute halt’ will not only save passengers the hassle of going about 30 km either to Visakhapatnam Railway Station or to Anakapalle by autorickshaw or cars but also result in ‘halting’ the colossal wastage of fuel.