Lack of publicity tells upon ‘Araku special’

Lack of publicity tells upon ‘Araku special’

The train has been introduced following demand from passengers

A contrasting picture of two passenger trains was seen on Sunday. One was full of passengers, bound for Araku, while the other a special train to Araku, which has hardly any patronage.

In the first train 1 VK Passenger, there was not even enough space to sit, while the second special train, which left in a gap of about an hour, passengers could have the whole berth for themselves. The choice of the passengers seemed to defy logic. But, the reasons are not hard to find. Most of the passengers were unaware that the railways was running Araku specials for the first time on Saturday and Sunday bowing to the demand from the travelling public.

It was around 6.30 a.m. on Sunday. Hundreds of passengers were rushing towards the general booking counters at the main entrance of Visakhapatnam Railway Station. Many rushed towards the counters, while some approached the ATVM operators for tickets to trains leaving early in the day.

No one has asked for tickets for the Araku special. “They don’t seem to know that a special is being operated to Araku,” said an ATVM operator. Ironically, while there were repeated announcements on the public address system on the Visakhapatnam - Koraput Passenger and occasional announcement of 1 VK passenger and other express trains, only one announcement was made for the Araku special and that at 7.35 a.m., after the 1 VK left the station around 7.15 a.m.

The 1 VK was full with some passengers standing in almost all the coaches. Interestingly, the Araku Special was standing on a shunting line in the station but no announcement was made about the availability of the special train. Had the Araku special kept on the vacant platform adjacent to the one on which 1 VK was standing, those who failed to get a seat on 1 VK would have shifted to the special train and travelled in comfort.

Silent exit

The special made a silent exit, without any announcement, around 8.15 a.m.

Tourists, who opted for the rail-cum-road package tour of the AP Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC), were accommodated in a single coach on 1 VK. There were 80 seats in the coach and it was full. Even the APTDC customers were ignorant of the special train. “We are encouraging our customers to use the road package, when our quota of berths on the train is exhausted. This is because the railways is not in a position to allocate more berths to us in view of the heavy demand during the peak season (October-January) every year,” an official of APTDC had earlier told The Hindu and the present demand shows there is no change in the situation.

Tourists, who come mostly from West Bengal and Odisha, book their journey mostly online months before the beginning of the peak season.

Damodar, a teacher at a GVMC School, said: “I came to know of this train through newspapers. It was announced only a few days ago and more publicity could have resulted in more number of passengers utilising the special. These days FM radio is very popular, the railways could have at least used the FM radio stations to spread the message. Further, there were no announcements at the railway station.” Ravi Kiran of Visakhapatnam was seen engrossed in reading a newspaper seated near the window in the Araku special. He said: “I came to know about the train through newspaper,” he said.

Three youths travelling in a different coach said: “We came to know of this train through the Internet.”

Some passengers wondered whether the Araku special would be available next weekends also.

More publicity could have resulted in more number of passengers utilising the special service

Damodar

A teacher

Source:The Hindu