Vizag railway station remained closed till noon

Visakhapatnam: In view of the Agnipath protests, Railway authorities closed the Visakhapatnam railway station till noon on Saturday. Beefing up security at all major stations in Andhra Pradesh, the decision to close down Visakhapatnam railway station was taken as a part of the precautionary measure to prevent protests as a part of the Agnipath agitation gripping the nation and the possibility of destruction of railway property.

Police personnel from various wings and Railway Protection Force were deployed at the station in large numbers. Keeping the security aspect in view, the trains arriving to Visakhapatnam were diverted to Duvvada. However, the services started resuming from Visakhapatnam railway station later in the afternoon. In view of suspected agitation at various zones, some of the trains were cancelled and few were diverted or rescheduled.

Cancelled trains:Shalimar-Secunderabad East Coast express (18045) leaving Shalimar; Guntur –Visakhapatnam express (17239) leaving Guntur; Rayagada-Visakhapatnam express (18527) leaving Rayagada on Sunday remained cancelled.

Visakhapatnam-Guntur express (17240); Kakinada-Visakhapatnam train (17267); Visakhapatnam – Kakinada (17268); Visakhapatnam- Rayagada express (18528) leaving Visakhapatnam on Saturday were cancelled.

A number of trains reaching Visakhapatnam were short terminated at Duvvada on Saturday, including Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam Godavari express (12728), Kacheguda-Visakhapatnam express (12862), Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Garibrath express (12740), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Visakhapatnam (18520) and Kadapa -Visakhapatnam Tirumala express (17487).

Similarly, some were short terminated at Anakapalle. They were Machilipatnam-Visakhapatnam express (17219) reaching Visakhapatnam, Visakhapatnam-Machilipatnam train (17220) started from Anakapalli on Saturday instead of Visakhapatnam.

Kakinada-Visakhapatnam train (17267) reaching Visakhapatnam on Saturday was short terminated at Anakapalli. Hence Visakhapatnam – Kakinada (17268) started from Anakapalli instead of Visakhapatnam.

Tirupati Visakhapatnam double decker express (22708) reaching Visakhapatnam on Saturday short terminated at Anakapalli. Visakhapatnam -Tirupati double decker express (22707) began from Anakapalli the same day instead of Visakhapatnam.

The change in the schedule caused inconvenience to several passengers who arrived from different destinations. Following the reschedule, many of them opted for a bus journey, cancelling the train tickets.