K'buragi-H'bad intercity: Railways make a U turn
This would have benefitted thousands, but railways has let them down
Srinivas Sirnoorkar
KALABURAGI: Strange are the ways of the Indian Railways. And the South Central Railway has created a notorious record of sort by making a glorious U Turn with regard to running of Kalaburagi-Hyderabad-Kalaburagi inter city express, which if introduced in the right earnest, would...
more... have benefitted thousands of commuters who daily frequent Hyderabad for various purposes. But the railways has miserably let them down.
There is no rational explantation whatsoever in the SCR cutting a very sorry figure by issuing two notifications on the same day with regard to a running of a train and its cancellation! The SCR on Jan 29 issued a notification (PR No 798) announcing that it will be running a special train between Hyderabad-Kalaburagi-Hyderabad from February 1 to 29. However, it was immediately followed by another notification on the same day, Jan 29, (PR No 803), announcing cancellation of the train!
"The central railway had announced running of special train between Hyderabad-Kalaburagi from February 1 to 29. However, in view of poor occupancy, the special train is now cancelled. Rail users may please take note of this'' said the second notification. Both notifications had been issued by M Umashankar Kumar, Chief Public Relations Officer, South Central Railway, Secunderabad. However, the absurdity in issuing the second notification remains unexplained. How did the SCR come to know about the `poor occupancy' even before running the said train ?
In fact, the Senior Divisional Commercial Manager and PRO, Central Railway, Solapur, on January 2, issued a notification announcing the running of special train between Kalaburagi-Hyderabad-Kalaburagi, from Jan 6 to Jan 31. And accordingly the train was run. But the greatest fiasco was committed by SCR by, first, virtually announcing to continue the same train for the entire month of February and it was immediately followed by cancellation of the train! And in the process Kalaburagi and its people are being dragged apart by the Central Railway and the South Central Railway.
Dubious reply
However, there is a dubious information from the Railway Board, New Delhi, with regard to running of the Kalaburagi-Hyderabad intercity. In an information provided to an application filed under Right To Information Act, Dr Shrikant V Janbandh, Director TT/Coaching, Railway Board, New Delhi, said: "In the railway budget 2014-15, introduction of 11307/11308, Hyderabad-Gulbarga intercity express (daily) had been announced. As of now, the train is ready and is likely to be introduced shortly.' The information is dated 12.1.2016, that is, when the special train between the two cities was already running ostensibly on trial basis by calling it a `special traín.'
The three notifications and the RTI reply which run contrary to each other speaks volumes of chaos and confusion prevailing in the Indian Railways under the regime of Suresh Prabhu, who has been projected as the BJP led NDA governments's face to bail out the Indian railways from the mess created all these years and decades.
The special train was grossly inconvenient. It was leaving Kalaburagi at 10.15 am and reaching Hyderabad at 2.50 pm. However, earlier to this train Kalaburagi has two trains to Hyderabad. Hubli-Secunderabad at 7.10 am and Mumbai-Hyderabad Hussain Sagar at 7.20 am. "It is grossly inconvenient and how can the new train have expected occupancy ? The train should leave Kalaburagi at 6 am instead of 10.15 am and from Hyderabad at 7 pm instead of 4 pm. Then only it will serve the purpose'' said Mr Rajshekhar, a business man who frequently travels.
source;www.deccanheraldepaper.com
