New Delhi: The Indian Railways has made elaborate arrangements for smooth and comfortable travel for the passengers during this summer with 6,369 special trips of 380 special trains. “During the summer season this year, for the convenience of railway travellers and to clear extra rush of passengers, Indian Railways is running 6,369 trips of 380 special trains,” the Railway Ministry said.
Indian Railways is running 1,770-morning trips this year as compared to the total summer special trains (4,599 trips by 348 trains) run in 2022. While an average of 13.2 trips per train was arranged last summer, 16.8 trips per special train are being made in the current year. The major destinations connected are Patna-Secunderabad, Patna-Yesvantpur, Barauni-Muzaffarpur, Delhi-Patna, New Delhi-Katra, Chandigarh-Gorakhpur, Anand Vihar-Patna, Visakhapatnam-Puri-Howrah, Mumbai-Patna, Mumbai-Gorakhpur.
In total, these 380 special trains making 6,369 trips have 25,794 general coaches and 55,243 sleeper coaches. General coaches have a capacity of 100 passengers whereas sleeper coaches have a capacity of 72 passengers in Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coach and 78 in Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coach.
“In order to cater for the summer rush, all the zonal railways spread across the country have geared up to run special trips. Through these special trains, connectivity from various states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi is being ensured,” the Railway Ministry said.
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The South Western Railway catering to majorly Karnataka region is running maximum trips 1,790 this summer season in comparison to 779 trips last year whereas the Western Railway catering majorly to the state of Gujarat has also geared up to run 1,470 trips in comparison to 438 trips last year. The South Central Railway is running 784 trips, which is 80 trips more than the last year. To deal with the heavy rush in the northern part of the country, North Western Railway is running 400 trips, the East Central Railway is running 380 trips. Northern Railway has also planned to run 324 trips this year. “Neither the number of trains nor the number of trips run by specific special trains is static for the entire season,” the Ministry said.
Planning and running of special trains is a continuous process for which inputs are taken from all the communication channels, including media reports, social media platforms, and railway-integrated helpline number 139, apart from details of waitlist passengers in the PRS system to assess the demand of trains on a particular route. “Based on the requirement, the number of trains and a number of trips are augmented,” the Ministry said. Interestingly, a watch on any malpractices like cornering of seats, over-charging and touting activity is being kept by the team of commercial and railway protection force (RPF) staff.
