Trains cancelled in AP, Odisha due to cyclone Phailin

With cyclone Phailin set to hit Odisha and Andhra Pradesh coasts on Saturday evening, the Railways have cancelled all trains between Howrah and Visakhapatnam as a precautionary measure.

While it had announced to cancel some passenger trains on Friday, Railways decided to suspend movement of all trains on Saturday in view of the cyclone.

"All trains between Howrah and Visakhapatnam will remain suspended today and are also likely to remain suspended tomorrow," a senior East Coast Railway official said.

The trains which have been cancelled include Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam Intercity Express, Bhubaneswar- Tirupathy S/F Express, Bhubaneswar-Secunderabad Visakha Express, Guntur-Visakhapatnam-Guntur Simhadri Express, Howrah- Bhubaneswar Janshatabdi Express, Howrah-Puri Shatabdi Express and Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express.

While, Yesvantpur-Bhubaneswar Prasanti Express and Secunderabad-Bhubaneswar Visakha Express have been short terminated at Vishakapatnam.

The railway administration has also decided to divert the routes of several other trains running between Howrah and Chennai.

Two trains which have been diverted via Vizianagaram and Jharsuguda are Tiruchirapalli-Howrah and Chennai-Howrah Mail.

The trains diverted via Chakradharpur and Bilaspur are Howrah-Chennai Falaknuma Express, Howrah-Yashvantpur Duronto Express, Haldia-Chennai S/F Express, Howrah-Hyderabad East Coast Express.

Guwahati-Trivandrum Express has been diverted via Vizianagaram and Jharsuguda, they said.

Cyclonic storm Phailin is currently positioned just 260 km off the coast of Gopalpur in Odisha, which is likely to be epicentre of the storm.

Andhra Pradesh has set up a round-the-clock control room in the State Secretariat in Hyderabad.

The control room numbers are: 040-23456005/23451043 and Fax- 040-23451819.

Emergency control room numbers - 08942 240557 and +91-652838191 in Srikakulam district.

Toll free number 180042500002 was announced as the Phailin emergency number.

The helpline number of the Odisha Central Control Room - 0674-2534177.