Alleging a stiff rise of crime record in the town due to illegal business of brown sugar and other contraband items, the party activists blocked roads and rail tracks bringing the vehicular communication and train services to a grinding halt.
Hundreds of protesters were seen sitting on the railway track near the station raising slogan and waving party flags. Various trains, including Bangiriposi-Bhubaneswar superfast stopped at Baripada station. A large number of passengers were left stranded at the railway station.
Vehicular movement virtually came to a standstill in many places in the district with the party supporters blocking the NH 18 by burning tyres and putting hurdles.
Shops, business establishments, markets, educational institutions were closed in the city as JMM activists picketed to enforce the bandh.
Tight security arrangements have been made to prevent any untoward incident during bandh, police said.
Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal recently informed through a tweet that the Indian Railways will soon offer free video streaming to passengers on railway stations and in trains without any extra charges.
“Soon, stream your favourite movies, shows and music on trains and stations,” the tweet by the union minister read although he did not mention as to when will the new facility be rolled out.
According to a report published in the Financial Express, the project will be implemented by the State-run RailTel Corporation of India. The report quoted a railway official saying that ‘a Request for Proposal (RFP) will be issued by RailTel within the first few days of August.’
The RailTel will provide preloaded multilingual content; movies, music videos, general entertainment including TV serials and devotional programmes, lifestyle-related etc in moving trains, the report stated.
It may be noted that RailTel is already offering free high-speed WiFi service at thousands of stations across the country. The proposal for new video streaming facility comes in the backdrop of the Indian Railways’ decision to introduce aircraft-style on-board infotainment in long-distance trains.
The facility is already available on trains like Tejas Express and Anubhuti coaches where the Railways received complaint of damages to personalised screens and hardware installations by passengers.
While the preloaded content will be made available for free, the Railways has decided to earn non-fare revenue from the new facility.
"In order to facilitate the candidates attending Union Public Service Examination (UPSC), SCR will run two special trains between Vijayawada - Visakhapatnam - Vijayawada," said a railway zone spokesperson.
Train number 07233 from Vijayawada to Visakhapatnam will depart Vijayawada at 3 p.m. on Saturday and arrive at Visakhapatnam at 10 p.m. on the same day.
Likewise, the return train bearing the number 07234 will depart Visakhapatnam at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday and arrive at Vijayawada at 4 a.m. on Monday.
Enroute, the special trains will halt at eight stations, Eluru, Tadepelligudem, Nidadavolu, Rajamundry, Samarlakota, Tuni, Anakapalli and Duvvada.
The civil services examination has been scheduled on Sunday.
In a separate development, the railway zone restored train halts at several places in the southern state.
"Consequent upon permission of AP state government to restore stoppages, SCR has decided to restore the stoppages which were eliminated earlier," said an official.
Train halts have been restored at multiple places in the state for several trains originating from across the country, state and also passing through it.
(IANS)
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"After remaining suspended for 11 months due to the pandemic, train services will be resumed partially today between Baramulla and Banihal," an official said.
"A dry run of 137 km was carried out yesterday (Sunday) between Baramulla and Banihal," the official of the Northern Railways said.
The official start the departure time will be 11.25 a.m. from Banihal and 9.10 a.m. from Baramulla.
"In the partial resumption of operations, the service will have two runs daily between Banihal and Baramulla," the official said.
The train service from Banihal in the Jammu division to Baramulla in Kashmir division has 17 stations in between.