Title - Sunday's power staff strike in Seemandhra delays key trains to Vizag

VISAKHAPATNAM: The indefinite strike in the 13 Seemandhra districts by the Samaikya Andhra Vidyut Employees (SAVE) joint action committee from Sunday morning has impacted railway services, with two trains being delayed by more than three hours at the Ongole and Vijayawada railway stations.The 16323 Shalimar Express (Trivandrum Central-Shalimar), which is scheduled to reach Visakhapatnam Railway Station (VRS) at 10.55pm on Sunday, is now expected to reach at 2.20am on Monday. Another train, 12842 Coromandel Express (Chennai Central-Howrah), which was to reach VRS at 9.50pm on Sunday, is now expected at 1.23am on Monday.Railway officials pointed to the disruption in power supply for the train and at the railway stations as the reason for the delay. If the strike continues, train services would be interrupted on Monday too, the officials said.

Emergency services such as health and water would also be affected by the strike, said its convener, Polaki Srinivasa Rao. On Sunday, nearly 4,000MW of power generation was affected, he pointed out.

Nearly 14,000 regular and contract employees of the Eastern Power Distribution Company of AP Limited (EPDCL) would participate in the strike from 6am on Monday. "On Sunday, the Save JAC members under the Southern Power Distribution Company of AP Limited (SPDCL) took part in the strike. From Monday, EPDCL staff would take part in the strike," said Rao.

Earlier, Save Jac held a 72-hour strike but exempted emergency services. As this did not have the desired result, JAC took the decision of holding an indefinite protest from Sunday across the 13 Seemandhra districts without exempting emergency services, Rao told TOI.

A senior EPDCL official informed TOI that because of the strike at the power generation stations at Vijayawada and Kadapa on Sunday, the discom faced power shortage of nearly 600MW against the actual demand of 1,600MW.