Rains in south coastal AP, TN hit hard Waltair railway division

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Waltair division of East Coast Railway (ECoR) incurred a loss of 12.5% in passenger traffic in November this year as compared to the same period last year due to the interruptions to train services on the Chennai-Howrah main railway line during the last few days.
The railway officials attributed the train service interruptions to the massive rains along the railway line in the south coastal AP and Tamil Nadu.
According to the officials, the division carried 24.8 lakh passengers in November this year as against the 26 lakh passengers during the same period last year. An approximate revenue during November 2014 was Rs 30 crore, but this time the division received only Rs 26.25 crore from passenger traffic. “Last year also we had service interruptions but not like this year. This time, the number of train cancellations were more as compared to last year,” a senior railway official told TOI, adding that this year, 73 trains were cancelled and 12 trains were short-terminated via the Waltair division in November against 50 cancellations and 16 short-terminations last year.
Railway sources said that the revenue could be affected in the present month too due to the floods in Chennai. “There were no train cancellations in December first week of 2014, but this year, we have cancelled 42 trains that were supposed to run via the division as on December 6 due to the heavy rains and flooding in Tamil Nadu and some parts of south coastal AP,” the railway official added.
As many as 85 trains pass via the city railway station daily to various parts of the country. Of them, 22 trains alone go towards Chennai. All of them were cancelled this time, the official added. “Overall, the flooding and heavy rainfall in both south coastal AP and Tamil Nadu under the influence of the low pressure troughs, upper air cyclonic circulations caused a major damage to the train services on the Chennai-Howrah railway line. It might take another one week for full restoration of services if rainfall recedes,” the railway official said.
When contacted, weathermen from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Hyderabad, said that they have issued a heavy rainfall warning at isolated places over coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry till December 7 under the influence of a low pressure area that was formed over southwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining Sri Lanka off Tamil Nadu coast with associated upper air cyclonic circulation extending up to 4.5 km above mean sea level.