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  Indian Railways News  / Curfew still on in Vizianagaram, 34 held - Trains on the Vijayawada-Gudur-Renigunta route, Kazipet-V

Vizianagaram/Hyderabad: Curfew was imposed in Vizianagaram town in coastal Andhra after violent attacks on the property of transport minister Botsa Satyanarayana, and shoot at sight orders were issued on Sunday.

Police arrested 34 people for arson and rioting in the town. Four of those arrested are said to be outsiders, two of them from Srikakulam. The town remained tense on Sunday as the united Andhra protesters hit the streets in the morning despite the curfew and pelted stones at policemen and targeted the Satya Institute of Technology and Management College in Gajularega, run by a relative of Satyanarayana.

IGP D. Tirumala Rao said, “The situation is almost under control. The locals, unaware of the implications of the curfew are coming onto the roads.”

Extra forces brought into Vizinagaram

“In the morning there were incidents of hurling stones on police in Vizianagaram. We have an adequate number of forces stationed in the city. Efforts are on to impose the curfew totally,” IGP D. Tirumala Rao director general of police B. Prasada Rao said extra forces have been brought into Vizianagaram town. “There is no major violence in the town. An additional 35 companies of paramilitary forces are on their way.”

Agitators were out in force in Kothapeta, Palliveedhi, Kota Junction, Dasannapeta, Kanyakaparameswari temple and other areas of Vizianagaram town on Sunday morning. The police had to fire rubber bullets in the air at Kothapeta, Gajularega and Palliveedhi and used smoke shells. Normal life was paralysed in Vizianagaram town.

Around 4,500 police and paramilitary forces sealed areas such as Korada Street, Sivalayam Street, Three Lamps area, Clock Tower, where Satyanarayana’s house and those of his relatives are located.

All shops including medical stores, restaurants and cinema theatres shut down for the third consecutive day. Vizianagaram and surrounding area were cut off from other parts of the region as no one is being allowed into the town and all vehicles are being checked.

Some women staged a protest by squatting on the railway track, alleging that they were lathi-charged by the police when they were doing their routine work in their homes.

There were complaints of excessive use of force by the police in order to safeguard the properties and houses of Satyanarayana, who people believe pushed for the division of the state for selfish reasons.

Tirumala Rao said that the relaxation of curfew will depend on the situation.

Power cuts: Around 30,000 electricity employees are on an indefinite strike in the Seemandhra region, which began immediately after the 48-hour strike ended. The strike has hit power generation  in coastal Andhra and also transmission across the state. AP has lost close to 4,000 MW of power due to the strike.

The Southern grid has been threatened and therefore the large-scale power cuts imposed across the state. “Apart from the Srisailam Right Bank losing total generation, even generation from the Left Bank has gone down to 300 MW from 900 MW due to switching off of supply to Anantapur and Kurnool. The total hydel generation has come down substantially from the 35 MU to 40 MU on Saturday,” said director (hydel) APGenco, G. Adhisheshu.

Hospitals: Elective surgeries in district hospitals of Seemandhra have come to a halt due to the agitation in the state. Only emergency services and deliveries of  pregnant women are being attended to by the doctors and paramedical staff.

On emergency duty,  on orders of the state government,  doctors and paramedical staff cannot  go on strike. But to register  their protest, they shout slogans in the mornings and at lunch time. Although there was no rush of patients in  the hospitals on Sunday, the administration claims that the situation will deteriorate if the situation continues as withholding elective surgeries for long can be harmful to the patients.

Trains: The South Central Railway (SCR) has been badly affected by the indefinite strike of electricity employees. Forty trains have been cancelled and several others diverted as power supply to the railways has been cut off. Train services in Vijayawada have been completely halted.

Trains on the Vijayawada-Gudur-Renigunta route, Kazipet-Vijayawada route, and the Vijayawada-Gudur-Tirupati route have been cancelled. Priority has been given to the smooth running of long distance mail and express trains which link the north and south, and east and south, traversing via Vijayawada and Guntakal divisions of SCR. No long distance express trains was cancelled or diverted till 6 pm on Sunday, according to SCR officials.

  Indian Railways News  / Railway dministration has made arrangements for several special trains for Durga Pooja. | दुर्गा पूज

लखनऊ। पूजा के मद्देनजर पूर्वोत्तर रेलवे ने लोकमान्य तिलक टर्मिनल से लखनऊ जंक्शन तक एक जोड़ी विशेष सुपरफास्ट ट्रेन चलाने का निर्णय लिया है। 02111 नम्बर की यह ट्रेन लोकमान्य तिलक से 11 अक्टूबर को पूर्वाह्न् 11.20 बजे चलेगी और अगले दिन सुबह 10.30 बजे लखनऊ जंक्शन पहुंचेगी। इसी प्रकार 02112 नम्बर की ट्रेन लखनऊ जंक्शन से 12 अक्टूबर को दोपहर 12.50 बजे चलेगी और अगले दिन पूर्वाह्न् 11.50 बजे लोकमान्य तिलक टर्मिनल पहुंचेगी। दोनों ट्रेनों को आते-जाते कानपुर, उरई, झांसी, बीना, भोपाल, हबीबगंज, इटारसी, खंडवा, भुसावल, मनमाड, इगतपुरी और कल्याण में ठहराव दिया गया है। इसमें एसी थ्री टियर के दस, एसी टू टियर के तीन और एसी फस्र्ट का एक कोच लगेगा। इसके अलावा इसमें यात्रियों की सुविधा के लिए पैन्ट्रीकार भी लगेगी।

  Indian Railways News  / Railways fast-tracks projects in VIP constituencies

Lok Sabha elections in 2014 have prompted the railways to speed up projects in VIP constituencies.Railways on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with steel ministry’s public sector unit, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), to fast-track the wheel factory project in Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s Raebareli.Ministers from both participating ministries, Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge and Steel Minister Benipersad Verma, were present to oversee the signing ceremony. The Rs 960-crore forged wheel factory was announced in the current budget and within a short period, railways arranged the resources. The state government has already provided 40 acres of land in Raebareli. RINL will invest the entire cost under assured off-take for around 26 years.

Only 10 days ago, Sonia Gandhi had laid the foundation stone for Mainline Electric Multiple Unit ( MEMU) coach factory in Bhiwara to strengthen her confidant and a state heavyweight C P Joshi. The foundation laying programme was to be organised sometime in October, but keeping in view the assembly elections in Rajasthan, it was advanced.

The Rs 1,000-crore MEMU project is in partnership with the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). The project took off during Joshi’s brief tenure in the ministry and an MoU was signed without delay.

 However, the Rs 600-crore rail coach factory in Palakkad in Kerala was pushed behind. The CPM government gave 400 acres of land in 2009 on the condition that it would be a joint venture of railways with a government PSU.

  Indian Railways News  / Power cut hits industries, rail services in coastal AP

As the electricity employees went on strike in the coastal districts and the Rayalaseema area of Andhra Pradesh against the Union Government’s decision to bifurcate the State and form Telangana, power supply was disrupted on Monday and there was a blackout in most of the coastal towns and villages. All industries, commercial establishments and other institutions were badly hit.The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, which experienced a minor disruption in production on Sunday, was totally disconnected from the State power grid on Monday and the plant was running solely on captive power units with a capacity of 240 MW. Sources said only the most essential systems were being maintained as otherwise there may be a total shutdown and production was badly hit.Other industries in Visakhapatnam and other towns had to stop production because of the power cut. Several trains on the Vijayawada-Chennai, Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada and the Visakhapatnam-Bhubaneswar sections were stopped because of the disruption in power supply. The railway authorities were moving trains on diesel engines. Passenger trains and goods trains were cancelled and several long-distance trains regulated due to the critical situation.

Curfew in force in Vizianagaram

The situation in Vizianagaram town, 60 km from here, where properties of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee President, B. Satyanarayana, were attacked, remained tense but under control, according to the police. Curfew continued in the town for the third day and there was a heavy deployment of rapid action police force.

Power generation at the Narla Tata Rao thermal power station at Ibrahimpatnam near Vijayawada came to a total halt on Sunday night. The plant generates 1750 MW of power.

sarma.rs@the.hindu.co.in

  Indian Railways News  / Train services partially hit

Almost all the trains running from Visakhapatnam to Vijayawada were running 30 to 60 minutes late, as the power supply to the electric traction lines between Visakhapatnam- Kakinada- Samalkot was hit.

The substations supplying the required power were running short, as all the thermal power plants and hydel plants were shut down by striking employees in protest against the bifurcation of the State.

While the seven passenger trains between Vijayawada and Renigunta and two express trains between Vijayawada-Chennai (12711 and 12077) remained cancelled on Monday, the South Central Railway ran five special trains between Vijayawada-Gudur, Vijayawada- Guntur and Vijayawada- Machilipatnam, to clear the rush.

SCR Senior Public Relations Officer F.R. Michael said 16 weekly special trains between Shalimar (Kolkata) and Yesvantpur would be run during October and November to clear the festival rush.

Train No. 02863 Shalimar-Yesvantpur Weekly Special Train will depart from Shalimar at 11 a.m. on Mondays (October 7, 14, 21and 28 and November 4, 11, 18 and 25) and arrive Yesvantpur at 4 p.m. the next day. The Weekly Special train will arrive and depart Vijayawada 4.45 and 4.55 a.m.

Train No. 02864 Yesvantpur-Shalimar (Kolkatta) Weekly Special Train will depart from Yesvantpur at 11.15 a.m. on Wednesdays (October 9, 16, 23and 30 and on November 6, 13, 20 and 27) and arrive Shalimar at 4.20 p.m. the next day. The Weekly Special Train will arrive and depart Vijayawada at 10.35 and 10.45 p.m.

En route, these weekly Special trains will halt at Santragachi, Kharagpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Khurda Road, Brehamapur, Vizianagaram, Duvvada, Samaklot, Rajahmundry, Vijayawada, New Guntur, Onbgole, Nellore, Gudur, Renigunta, Katpadi, Jolarpetai, Bangarupet and Krishnarajapuram stations in both the directions. These Weekly Special trains will consist of three AC 3 tier, 11 sleeper class, one Ac 2 tier, one luggage cum brake van and two power cars.

Second day

Train movement continued to be hampered for the second consecutive day on Monday, as the Railways were with the strike by employees of the APTransco.

Several passenger trains were partially cancelled on Monday too and goods trains were halted with focus on facilitating smooth movement of express trains.

Train no. 67295 Rajahmundry-Visakhapatnam Passenger that left at 11.15 a.m. but was partially cancelled between Anakapalli and Visakhapatnam, to run back as no. 67276 between Anakapalli and Rajahmundry. No. 57225 that left Vijayawada at 8.25 a.m. was similarly cancelled, to run back as no. 57230 from Anakapalli to Bhimavaram, said a press release.