New Delhi: Ahead of Chhath Puja, Railway Board Chairman Satish Kumar on Sunday inspected various facilities when he said that the railways is running 195 special trains for 13 days from the Delhi area for the convenience of passengers this year.
"We are running 195 special trains for 13 days from the Delhi area this year. Today, 70 trains are running from Delhi, of which 16 are special trains, and 4 trains are unannounced. Through these measures, we are trying to provide more facilities to passengers. I enquired with passengers about the arrangements, they are satisfied." The Railway Board chairman also interacted with passengers travelling amid the Chhath Puja rush.
According to railway ministry officials, the railway is running about 7500 special trains this year, while 4500 special trains were run last year. The railways ran more than 188 special trains on November 3, and 185 trains are being run on November 4. These train services, a mixed combination of AC, Sleeper, General coaches and unreserved specials, will help to cater the extra passengers, returning to their hometowns for celebrating Chhath.
Multiple trains to handle crowd
Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board said that Indian Railways ran more than 160 trains on Thursday and plans to run more than 170 trains on Sunday. He said special arrangements have been made at all major stations including New Delhi, Anand Vihar, Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda, Mumbai, Bandra, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. "We are running many trains to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to control the crowd. Yesterday we ran more than 160 trains and today we are planning to run more than 170 trains," he said.
Kumar further said that the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel have been deployed to control the crowd and rail sevaks are available to assist passengers with any queries. He said that extra coaches have been added to the special trains and hundreds of CCTV cameras have been installed at stations to monitor the movement of people. "Tickets can be booked through both online and offline systems," Kumar said.
Passengers can use unreserved seats
Satish Kumar said that they have restricted unnecessary movement of passengers, and railway servants are present to assist senior and physically challenged citizens. Chhath is an important festival celebrated mainly in the northern and eastern parts of India, including Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
To ensure passenger comfort and convenience, the Railway has enhanced passenger facilities and implemented several measures across its network. ‘May I Help you’ booths are provided to guide and help the passengers at important stations across the rail network. Numbers of ticket counters at various stations have been increased to facilitate the passengers. Holding areas are created at major stations to control extra rush at stations. Free drinking water, food and toilet facilities are being provided to all passengers at designated holding areas within station premises, the railway officials informed.
Northern Railway will run 39 trains on November 4 to provide relief to the passengers going home for Chhath. These will go to other states including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Passengers who do not have reserved tickets can travel in general coaches by taking unreserved tickets in these trains and reach their destination. A large number of people went to their homes to celebrate Diwali and Chhath Mahaparva even before Diwali. But a large number of passengers could not go to celebrate Chhath Mahaparva before Diwali. The number of trains carrying people going home to celebrate Chhath Mahaparva with their families has increased and special trains are being run for their convenience.