13 trains cancelled on Chennai-Vijayawada route due to flooding: Details

With heavy rains and floods damaging railway tracks in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, train services remained hit on the Chennai-Vijayawada grand trunk route on Monday, November 22. For a second consecutive day, railway authorities announced the cancellation of several trains.

According to South Central Railway, due to heavy inflow of water between Padugupadu - Nellore section of Vijayawada Division, 13 trains have been cancelled. The cancelled trains include Vijayawada - Chennai Central, Vijayawada - Gudur, Gudur - Vijayawada, Bilaspur - Ernakulam, Chamarajanagar - Mysuru, Kolhapur SCSMT - Tirupati, Yesvantpur - Howrah, KSR Bengaluru - Kakinada Town, Yesvantpur - Patliputra, Chennai Central - Tirupati and Tirupati - Chennai Central.

Meanwhile, due to a decrease in water flowing over the track, the down line between Gudur-Vijayawada has been restored for traffic. Eleven trains, which were earlier diverted, will now run on the normal route. The services of a few of these trains had commenced on November 19. The trains which will run in normal route include Bhubaneswar - Bengaluru Cantt, New Tinsukia - Bengaluru, Jaipur - Chennai Central, New Delhi - Thiruvananthapuram and H Nizamuddin - Chennai Central.

Over 40 trains were cancelled on Sunday as the railway track was damaged or was submerged by flood water. Railway authorities have taken up repair and restoration of the damaged track.

Special help lines have been opened at all major railway stations. With hundreds of passengers stranded, the authorities with the help of NGOs arranged food and drinking water for them at Kavali, Chirala and Ongole stations.

Earlier, on Saturday, the Railways had announced the cancellation and diversion of a few trains travelling on the Rajampet Nandalur track. The track was “affected with huge floods and overflow of water” on both sides due to the incessant rains that lashed the state, the SCR had said. The cancelled train services included those to and from Tirupati and Chennai, whereas the train from Madurai to Mumbai had to be diverted.