Secunderabad, Considering the Sankranti festival rush, the South Central Railway (SCR) zone will run more than 30 special trains to ferry passengers from Hyderabad to multiple places in Andhra Pradesh from Saturday.

"In order to clear extra rush during Sankranti festival, SCR will run special trains between Hyderabad - Visakhapatnam - Hyderabad and Secunderabad - Tirupati," said a railway zone official on Friday.

As many as 17 Sankranti specials will depart to Visakhapatnam and Tirupati. Train number 07451 will depart Hyderabad at 10.15 p.m. and arrive at Visakhapatnam the next day at 10.50 a.m.

This train has been scheduled from Saturday to January 16.

En route, it will halt at the Sankranti extravaganza hotbeds of Bhimavaram, Guntur, Vijayawada, Kaikaluru, Akividu, Tanuku, Nidadavolu, Rajamundry and others.

Similarly, the return train, 07452, from Visakhapatnam to Hyderabad will run from Sunday to January 16.

Likewise, train number 07453 from Secunderabad to Tirupati will run on Tuesday, departing Secunderabad at 7.40 p.m. and arriving in Tirupati at 7.50 a.m.

The railway zone is also running 16 clone Sankranti specials between Secunderabad and Berhampur in Odisha.

Train number 07449 will leave Secunderabad at 5.50 p.m. to arrive in Berhampur the next day at 12.05 p.m., from Saturday to January 16.

In return, train number 07450 will depart Berhampur at 1.30 p.m. on Sunday to reach Secunderabad by 7.15 a.m. the next day.

These special trains will throw a major lifeline to the festival enthusiasts who rush from Hyderabad to their hometown at a time when many private travel buses are yet to resume their operations like pre-Covid times.

Likewise, Sankranti time is renowned for choked traffic on the Hyderabad - Vijayawada highway, which leads to the major festival centres such as Bhimavaram and other villages in West Godavari district.

It remains to be seen how far the Coronavirus pandemic will affect the festival rush.