Title - TSR seeks re-routing of trains

Rajya Sabha Member T. Subbarami Reddy requested Chairman of the Railway Board Vinay Mittal to re-route five trains, being diverted via Duvvada, through Visakhapatnam railway station.In a letter to the Railway Board Chairman, he noted that the Route Relay Interlocking (RRI) works had been completed long ago and Visakhapatnam station now has eight platforms and there was no reason why some trains should continue to be diverted via Duvvada.Mr. Reddy noted that seven of the 12 trains that were bypassing Visakhapatnam, were already re-routed through Visakhapatnam and the 18047/18048 Howrah-Vasco Da Gama tri-weekly express, 12867/12868 Howrah-Pondicherry super fast weekly express, 12571/12572 Howrah-Prasanthi Nilayam weekly super fast express, Howrah-Tirupati weekly super fast express and 12254/12255 Bhagalpur-Yeswantpur weekly super fast express were still running via Duvvada.The re-routing of these trains was possible by adjusting their arrival and departure timings, Mr. Subbarami Reddy said and appealed to Mr. Mittal to initiate immediate action on the issue, if necessary by coordinating between the different Railway Zones concerned for the timings.

Halts sought
Mr. Reddy wrote to the Member (Traffic) of Railway Board K.K. Srivastava seeking the provision of two-minute halts for train no. 12739/12740 Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad Garibrath Express at Duvvada and for 12841/12842 Chennai-Howrah-Chennai Coromandel Express and 12670/12669 Chennai-Varanasi-Chennai Ganga Kaveri Express at Nellore. He also sought introduction of special trains for the benefit of passengers going on pilgrimage to Sabarimala, Varanasi and Jaipur/Jodhpur between August 2012 and January 2013.Mr. Reddy noted that 50,000 Malyalees and 2 lakh Ayyappa devotees travel for Onam and Ayyappa Swamy darshan, around 1 lakh passengers travel to Varanasi, Allahabad and Gaya for various religious purposes and nearly 50,000 Marwaris and Muslims travel to various places in Rajasthan and to Ajmer respectively on pilgrimage. The introduction of special trains would meet the travel needs of these pilgrims, he added.