Bhubaneswar: The Indian Railways has decided to resume the operation of several trains, which had been stopped plying a year back due to COVID-19 pandemic, for the passengers of southern districts of Odisha.
According to an East Coast Railway (ECoR) release, some trains connecting Rayagada and Gunupur stations with Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar and Junagarh will start plying from next month.
It has come as a relief for train passengers as the special trains connecting to Rayagada, which operated from October last year, were not plying on the southern route. Those trains are running on the route connecting to Sambalpur, Rourkela, Angul and Cuttack.
As the railway authorities did not resume the services on southern route, which has a high demand, the locals and several organisations drew the attention of Railway Minister, MPs, ECoR and DRM, Visakhapatnam. They also threatened of resorting to agitation if their demand was not looked into, sources said. Following this, divisional manager of ECoR visited Rayagada and discussed the issue with the locals.
As per the ECoR release, the Gunupur-Visakhapatnam Passenger train will start plying from April 7, Bhubaneswar-Junagarah Express from April 10, Bhubaneswar-Jagdalpur Express from April 20 and Puri-Gunpur Express from April 22 on the usual routes.
