In a bid to boost the tourism potential of the region, the Minister of State for Railways, Suresh Angadi, has announced 5 new Vistadome coaches between Visakhapatnam and Araku. The Minister made the announcement after flagging off the Uday Express between Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada.
Apart from sanctioning Vistadome coaches to Visakhapatnam, the MoS also assured to sanction multiple Vande Bharat Expresses to meet the requirements from the city.
In a letter addressed to the MoS, former MP K Haribabu raised a few concerns with regard to rail connectivity from the city. The BJP leader wrote, “In the past few decades, revenue from passengers and addition of passenger trains has been neglected in this division.
As of today, the passenger revenue stands at 7% only of the total revenue. Vizag is the 9th richest city in India as per GDP, but the connectivity from and to the city still needs a lot of improvement.”
Mr. Haribabu further identified trains along five routes (Vizag to Hyderabad, Vizag to Chennai, Vizag to Bengaluru, Vizag to Kolkata, Vizag to Tirupati) as a high priority, and requested the MoS to sanction at least 2 new trains along these routes.
Mr. Angadi was also requested to upgrade satellite railway stations at Vizag, Duvvada, and Simhachalam, with an allocation of Rs 50 crore to each station, to cater to the increasing passenger demand from the city.
Discussion about this post