Special buses, trains fall short to meet Sankranti rush

Despite officials claiming that they are providing enough public transportation facility to meet Sankranti festival rush, passengers continue to face a tough time trying to board buses or trains to reach their destination from Port City. Long waiting hours, running and boarding the incoming bus/train, fighting for seats are the common scenes in the stations, leading to chaos.

According to RTC officials, they are plying around 120 special buses to Hyderabad from the city from January 8 to 16. Besides, many more buses have been pressed into service for Rajahmundry, Amalapuram, Vijayawada, Kakinada and other places like Vizianagaram and Srikakulam.

Meanwhile, the East Coast Railway has also announced special trains to meet the festival rush. But the ground reality is quite different. People face a lot of problems with not enough transport facilities.

Consider the case of a group of engineering students from Pydah College, who reached the railway station to catch a train an hour before its arrival but still didn't get a seat.

One of them, T Ashok, said that they had reached the station at around 5 am to catch the 6 am train, but to their shock the platform was already choked with milling crowds desperate for a seat. Passengers are either forced to board the train anyway and travel standing for hours or risk not taking the train at all.

'The officials always allot seats in the long distance night trains and short distance passengers' needs are not considered,' a passenger lamented. Even the reservation quota is not meeting the needs of the passengers, say passengers.

The Visakhapatnam bus station is also crowded with passengers. People are seen running when the buses are parked on the platform and fighting for seats.

N Radhika, a homemaker, said: 'Since we can't get reservation in trains, the next option is buses, because we obviously expect to get a seat. But the condition in buses is no different from trains or even worse in many cases with women travelling with small children. People have been waiting for hours and fighting for seats.'

Cashing in on the situation are private bus operators, who are hiking fares twice or thrice the normal price. It is increasinlgy appearing that to be a case of survival of the fittest, for passengers keen on getting to their families at any cost are seen lobbying for confirmed reserved berths in trains or grabbing seats in buses.