South Central Railway has taken several steps to smoothly handle the Record Passenger Traffic and rush during the current Sankranti festive season. Some of these measures are detailed below:
1) All the available resources have been put to maximum use to increase the number of trains so as to enhance the Rail travel facility for the Passengers. 35 Special Trains are under operation during the current Sankranti season. These are in addition to the 132 Sabarimalai specials being operated at present.
During the period 1st to 18thJanuary itself, more than 100 special trains would get operated on all sectors put together. The Sankranthi special trains are being run on various popular routes, especially linking twin cities to Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Vijayawada, Machilipatnam, Nellore, Renigunta , Nagpur and Mumbai . In addition, Special trains are run on Tirupati- Karimnagar, Tirupati-Guntur, Tirupati- Aurangabad and Nanded- Chennai routes also.
2) Apart from Special Trains, the waitlist position for different classes in various trains is being closely monitored on a daily basis and necessary action is taken in the form of attaching extra coaches. It helped in clearing many of the waitlisted passengers on the travel day on highly congested trains.
During the period from 1st Jan. to 12th Jan., 183 extra coaches were attached, benefitting 10,400 waitlisted passengers. In the peak period of 10th-12th Jan., around 55 extra coaches were attached on several popular trains like Goutami Express, Narsapur Exp., Simhapuri Exp., Visakha Exp., Venkatadri Exp., and Bangalore Express etc..
3)At Secunderabad Station, the highest ever Passenger traffic was recorded on 12thJanuary, when around 85,000 Unreserved Passengers were cleared as against the average Volumes of around 55000 General Passengers.On 11th Jan., around 73,000 Unreserved Passengers were cleared, which is the second-best.In addition to these, around 32,000 Reserved passengers per day have also been transported out of Secunderabad Station in this period.
4)Such huge Passenger rushhas been handled in a smooth manner , without any major hitch due to the proactive steps taken at Secunderabad station, like
· Operation of additional ticket counters: 24 Booking Counters were opened as against the normal 18 counters. In addition, Passengers utilized the Automatic Ticket Vending Machines on the Platforms in a big way. ATVM facilitators were arranged to assist the Passengers
· Strengthening of Enquiry Counters by posting more number of Commercial staff
· Additional Security staff- both from RPF and GRP -were deployed in Station premises, to control and regulate the huge crowds wherever needed.
· Officers and Senior Supervisors camped round the clock to closely monitor the situation and to take necessary coordinated action on the spot to minimize the inconvenience to the Passengers.
