Copyright thehindu
The South Central Railway (SCR) has informed that normalcy has been restored in the train services across the zone since Thursday morning following let up in Cylcone Montha rains. Chief Public Relations Officer A. Sridhar said that advanced planning, monsoon safety protocols, round-the-clock monitoring by top officials at various divisions with the help of control rooms, helped in dealing with the natural calamity - ensuring that just 5% or little more than 130 trains got disrupted out of the 700-odd services run daily in the region. Another seven services were cancelled and 30 trains got diverted in the last two days due to waterlogging of tracks near Dornakal station between Kazipet-Vijaywada, while an upline near the Guntur station got affected. The railway personnel stopped the trains in the stations before or at Dornakal and ensured that some of the passengers were sent home through RTC buses. The Golconda Express was halted at this junction. Trains like Vande Bharat, which was stranded at Khammam station and a few other trains were taken back and rerouted through Guntur and Nalgonda towards Secunderabad. With the downline track near Guntur functioning, the officials managed to run trains making use of the single line till the repairs were carried out in Andhra Pradesh. Due to the disruption in the schedule, the Vande Bharat (Train No.20833) from Visakhapatnam started its journey at 10 a.m. instead of 5.45 a.m. and is scheduled to reach Secunderabad at about 8.30 p.m. The railway official explained that help desks were opened at all the important stations to assist the passengers. The monsoon action plan envisages continuous monitoring of vulnerable sections, including mountain sides, bridges and embankments near the water bodies with the help of line men and by being in constant touch with the State irrigation authorities to get information of the water inflows.
