South Central Railway carries 5 lakh Mahakumbh pilgrims on 150 trains

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The Mahakumbh in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj has come to a grand conclusion on ‘Maha Shivaratri’, however the multitudes of pilgrims headed for the Ganga and its environs will proceed properly into the primary week of March and past, a minimum of these travelling by trains from right here.

South Central Railway (SCR) already has a agenda to run particular trains until March 8 earlier than the unique providers for the pilgrims stop operations. If many pilgrims have hit the street to achieve the holy ‘Triveni Sangamam’—the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the legendary Saraswati rivers for the holy dip, the Railways has been the beast of the burden for thus many others.

High railway officers estimate that as many as 5 lakh pilgrims have travelled on the 150-odd trains in the direction of Prayagraj, and these embody the 88 common trains, primarily the favored each day Danapur Categorical from Secunderabad, with almost 150% occupancy. There have been additionally 13 different pairs of particular trains passing by the zone from Southern Railway and South Jap Railway.

Two ‘Bharat Gaurav’ pilgrim specials, too, have been operated throughout this era to take 1,500 (on every prepare) devotees on an escorted tour of the temples in Prayagraj, Ayodhya, Varanasi, and so on., and again.

“We didn’t have a lot of an issue through the [operation of] ‘Mahakumbh’ specials as a result of the push was staggered over the past two months ranging from the primary service on January 8. Possibly, sure providers took extra time to achieve the vacation spot due to the clogged traces up north. We have now had … tougher occasions through the Dasara and Sankranti festivals, after we dealt with the group over a interval of 10 days,” defined Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) A. Sridhar.

The demand for the prepare providers proceed regardless of the conclusion of the primary non secular congregation as a result of the pilgrims are stated to be visiting close by holy locations reminiscent of Ayodhya to go to the newly constructed Ram Temple, Varanasi and others after the holy dip.

Commissioning the Cherlapalli new terminal station has enabled SCR to shift the specials’ originating level, easing up the primary Secunderabad railway station, which is present process an enormous redevelopment, together with demolition of current buildings.

“We have now had pilgrim specials in the direction of Prayagraj ranging from Kacheguda, Moula Ali, Vijayawada, Guntur, Kakinada, Narsapur, Tirupati, Bidar, Machilipatnam, Nanded and Aurangabad stations, too,” identified Mr. Sridhar.

At level, SCR authorities needed to cope with the sudden cancellation of the each day 12791/92 Danapur Categorical owing to “logistic” points on the route for about 10 days, as a result of which the particular trains have been the one service for passengers travelling in the direction of UP and Bihar.

SCR had additionally deputed about 150 personnel reminiscent of supervisors and different ticketing workers to Prayagraj to assist the railway there deal with the trains in addition to crowds. Prayagraj apparently had eight stations throughout the metropolis, operating around the clock. One other station close to the primary bathing ghat was briefly shut for a day owing to an enormous inflow of pilgrims.

Right here too, a war-room was arrange within the head workplace and divisional workplaces to watch providers and crowds. Extra RPF personnel, ticket issuing and checking workers and others have been pressed into service in the primary stations to make sure orderly motion on platforms, particularly publish the New Delhi railway station stampede.

Total, Indian Railways claims to have run over 17,000 trains, surpassing the initially deliberate 13,000 trains, with 4.24 crore passengers dealt with at Prayagraj stations.