The South Central Railway (SCR) was caught unawares on Friday morning when agitators, armed with sticks, burst onto the tracks and platforms of the Secunderabad station, and ran amok. It was only after the stone-pelting and coach-burning began that senior officials got alerted.
Unofficial estimates put the extent of damage to railway property at more than ₹3 crore. While the agitators were removed by the police around dusk, senior officials said the scheduled trains would be run from the station later at night.
When the violence erupted, there were three outgoing trains lined up — Secunderabad-Danapur on platform no.1, East Coast Express on platform no.2 and Sabari Express towards Kerala on platform no.5. There were four incoming trains too — Garib Rath on the Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad route on platform no.4, Rajkot-Secunderabad Express on platform no.6, Raipur-Secunderabad Express on platform no.8 and Ajanta Express from Manmad on platform no.9 apart from an MMTS train on platform no.10.
