Telangana: Secunderabad Railway station damage over Rs 12 crore

HYDERABAD: Officials have heightened security across all major railway stations in the Secunderabad division with Railway Protection Force (RPF) manning sensitive installations
The preliminary estimate of damages at the Secunderabad Railway Station due to the violent Agnipath protest has crossed Rs 12 crore and is set to go up once loss of revenue through ticket refunds is calculated.Freight earnings too were affected due to the disruption in services and many trains were cancelled due to a shortage of rakes due to damage during the protest.
Briefing on the damages, divisional railway manager Abhay Kumar Gupta on Tuesday said that they would soon be submitting a report on the total losses to the railway board seeking financial assistance for restoring passenger amenities.
“While train services are restored, passenger amenities have been hit. Four lifts and all escalators aren’t functioning. Apart from that, 42 TVs, CCTV cameras and several stalls have been destroyed,” Gupta said, adding that none of the agitators carrying weapons entered through the main entrance and that most came through other entry points.
“At least five coaches were burnt beyond repair while many have damages to berths, windows, bathroom fittings amongst others. Eight railway employees sustained minor injuries,” Gupta added.
Officials have heightened security across all major railway stations in the Secunderabad division with Railway Protection Force (RPF) manning sensitive installations along with Rapid Action Force (RAF).
“This was clearly more of vandalism than a protest. Many have conducted peaceful protests by giving memorandums to us. We never expected such kind of violent protest,” Gupta added