Hyderabad, Jan 11 : The South Central Railway (SCR) on Sunday announced three more special trains between Hyderabad and Anakapalle in Andhra Pradesh in view of the extra rush of passengers on account of the ensuing Sankranti festival.

These trains will be operated between Charlapalli station and Anakapalle, the SCR announced on Sunday.

Train number 07479 Anakapalle-Charalapalli will depart from Anakapalle at 10.30 p.m. on January 18 and reach Charalapalli at 11.30 a.m. the next day. Train number 07477 Charalapalli-Anakapalle will depart from Charalapalli at 12.40 a.m. on January 19 and will arrive at Anakapalle at 9 p.m. the same day.

The third train (07478) will depart from Anakapalle at 10.30 p.m. on January 19 and reach Charalapalli at 11.30 a.m. the next day.

Earlier, the SCR announced four special trains between Hyderabad and Sirpur Kagazhnagar and 10 special trains between Hyderabad and Vijayawada.

The SCR has so far announced more than 170 special trains across key routes, including Vijayawada, Kakinada, Machilipatnam, Visakhapatnam, and Narsapur in Andhra Pradesh. Another 130 special trains will be operated through Andhra Pradesh to clear the extra rush.

Meanwhile, in view of the surge in passenger footfall during the Sankranti festival season, the SCR has taken up several measures to mitigate the ensuing passenger rush.

The expected average daily footfall during the festival period is approximately 2.20 lakh passengers at Secunderabad, 50,000 at Lingampalli, and 35,000 at Charlapalli stations.

To manage the surge in passengers, the ground operations team consisting of TTEs and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel have been deployed at Secunderabad station. Additional TTEs and RPF personnel have been deployed at all entry and exit points.

A robust CCTV surveillance control room has been setup and the war room is operational 24x7 in the divisional Headquarters. Construction sites have been fully barricaded as a safety measure, and all obstructions at entry and exit points have been cleared to ensure free movement of passengers.

Due to redevelopment works at Secunderabad Railway Station, parking is temporarily suspended, and limited pick-up/drop-off at Platform No. 1 is available. At Secunderabad station parking, the access control system at the Bhoiguda entrance (Platform No.10 side) has been temporarily lifted off to facilitate faster passenger movement.

/IANS