Train services on Vijayawada-Hyderabad route set to be restored

Hyderabad, Sep 4 (IANS) After four days, the movement of trains between Vijayawada and Hyderabad is set to be restored on Wednesday with the repair of damaged track in Telangana’s Mahabubabad district, officials said.

After the restoration of one of the tracks damaged in floods, the South Central Railway (SCR) operated the Sanghamitra Express without passengers towards Hyderabad as a trial run.

The officials said they would later allow the Guntur-Secunderabad Golconda Express on the restored track on the Kazipet-Vijayawada trunk route. The Guntur Express will be reaching Secunderabad via Guntur, Vijayawada, and Warangal.

As only the upline has been restored, the railway authorities are allowing trains coming to Hyderabad via Warangal. The trains from Hyderabad towards Warangal will be allowed later in the day after restoration of the downline.

The railway authorities completed the repair of one of the damaged tracks on the Intakanne–Kesamudram section in Mahabubabad district. Heavy rains and floods had damaged the track at six locations on September 1. The damage had disrupted the rail traffic on the main truck, resulting in the cancellation of more than 500 trains during the last four days.

Several other trains were either partially cancelled or diverted. The repair of the damaged track was taken up on a war footing. About 500 employees participated in the restoration work which continued round-the-clock for two days.

After re-opening both up and down lines, the SCR plans to completely restore the train services from Thursday.

Meanwhile, the SCR announced that Chennai Central-SMVD Katara (16031) and Trivandrum-Nizamuddin (12643) have been restored to run on their normal route. It had earlier announced the diversion of both trains. Secunderabad-Guntur (17202) has been restored and rescheduled. It will leave Secunderabad at 2.30 p.m. instead of 12.30 p.m.

Ahmedabad-MGR Chennai Central (12655) has also been restored to run normally. The SCR also announced the cancellation of eight trains including the Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam, Secunderabad-Manuguru and Secunderabad-Bhadrachalam services. Seven other trains were diverted.