‘Railways managing festive rush through real-time monitoring, tech upgradation’

New Delhi: Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday stated that the government had prepared a holistic plan to deal with the festive rush of travel, making special focus on ensuring the smooth running of special trains.

The Railway ministry has shortlisted 35 stations in the entire country which experience maximum rush of passengers during the Chhath and Diwali festivals, with special emphasis on 18 priority stations in Bihar, such as Patna, Muzaffarpur, Purnea, Darbhanga and more, the minister emphasised.

Vaishnaw asserted that just one train was delayed by six hours, but the majority of special trains came within three to four hours of their timings. Train operations were continuously tracked by a central war room, and whenever trains were stopped for extended periods of time, instantaneous liaison with local authorities facilitated the immediate restart of services.

The minister added that 76 permanent holding points would be set up across the country in the next few months to facilitate more movement of passengers and reduce load on big stations. But the move has already been enforced as the spine-chilling episode of a stampede had occurred at New Delhi railway station earlier this year.

By October 23, close to 1.2 crore passengers had travelled during the festive season, some 50 lakh more than last year, the minister added. Vaishnaw also noted that a much higher number of passengers used valid tickets this year, a 50 per cent increase from the last festive season. As many as 10,700 trains were open for booking on the IRCTC platform, facilitating increased convenience and flexibility for passengers.

He added that from next year onwards, special trains will be notified well in advance so that passengers can plan their trips properly.

In another major development, Vaishnaw informed that the railways have set a new target to clean tracks within 56 seconds, compared to the previous average of seven minutes. The target, enabled by the application of modern cleaning technologies, is to be met by mid-2026.

The minister went on to say that the emphasis on real-time coordination, enhanced technology and anticipatory planning has enabled the Railways to cope with the festival rush better this year as a big step towards enhancing passenger comfort and operating discipline on India’s vast rail network.