78 special trains for Diwali, Chhath rush: 5 things to know

New Delhi: Indian Railways is offering special train services to cater to the huge festive rush. Northern Railways has introduced 78 special trains, adding 2.2 lakh train berths in order to handle the rush during Diwali and Chhath festivals, reported PTI. This year, the festival of Diwali falls on 7 November, while the Chhath Puja is on 13 November. Millions of people from different states go home during these festivals. These special trains which started from 15 October will run till 15 November.

A senior official of Northern Railways said that these special trains will make 519 trips during this period to handle the rush.

Here are five things to know about these special trains that will run to cater to the festival rush till mid November.

1. All the trains will be placed on platforms at least 30 minutes before their scheduled departure to ensure that the passengers have ample time to board.

2. No platform tickets will be available in New Delhi between November 2 and November 13, so as to limit the passengers on platforms to facilitate those boarding or alighting the trains, the report added.

3. The Railway Board has instructed the Northern Railways to maintain punctuality of these special trains

4. During this period, apart from RPF/RPSF personnel, scouts/civil defense personnel are also deployed to help control the crowd movement.

5. Constant CCTV camera monitoring is done of all the major stations and additional ones are installed for covering every inch of the station premises.

A railway statement said that while on an average about 8.5 lakh passengers are handled each day at the various terminals in the national capital area on normal days, the New Delhi railway station alone witnesses a daily footfall of up to six lakhs during these festivals. Similarly, on normal days, the Anand Vihar Terminal handles around 50,000 passengers daily, which increases to above 80,000 during Diwali/Chhath. There is about 20-30 per cent increase in traveller volume at Delhi Junction station at this time.

With inputs from PTI