Northern Railway to Run 250+ Holi Special Trains & Crowd Control

In view of the increasing crowd of people going home on Holi, Northern Railway has made preparations to run more than 250 special trains. Also, strict arrangements have been made for crowd management at big stations like New Delhi, Anand Vihar. Live monitoring of the number of passengers, on-demand special trains, arrangements for general class special trains and additional security forces will be deployed at the stations. Not only this, Vande Bharat Special train is also being run between New Delhi and Patna.

Learning from the stampede incident at New Delhi station on February 15, the railways have made arrangements for permanent waiting areas, CCTV, war rooms and special shelters to provide passengers a safe, convenient and organised travel experience.

Holi is on 14th March and the number of people going home for Holi is increasing. Crowds can be seen in trains. Most of the people have already booked tickets in trains. In such a situation, there is a long waiting list in the trains running regularly on Holi. People are not able to get reserved seats.

Northern Railway's Chief Public Relations Officer Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay told , 'Holi is a major festival. People living in big cities of the country want to go out of their homes and celebrate Holi with their families. Special arrangements have been made by Northern Railway to fulfill this desire of the people. Those who are not getting seats in regular trains can go home on Holi by booking tickets in special trains announced by the Railways. Passengers need not worry'.

Special trains to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh:

This time, to provide relief to passengers on Holi, preparations have been made to run more than 250 special trains apart from regular trains. Operation of some special trains has been started. Special trains have AC, sleeper and general coaches. These special trains are being run. Most of these trains will be going towards the east, because the number of passengers going from Delhi and surrounding areas to eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and eastern region is very high. This time Vande Bharat is being run as a special train between New Delhi and Patna. There are a large number of passengers traveling on general tickets. This time trains will be run on demand. These trains will be of general class. People who have gone home come back to work. In such a situation, special trains will be operated after Holi from March 17. If needed, the time of operation of stationary trains will be extended.

The number of passengers will be monitored, security arrangements will be strict:

Learning from the incident of February 15, this time there will be special arrangements for crowd management at New Delhi and Anand Vihar railway stations. Chief Public Relations Officer Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay said that the number of passengers will be monitored live through CCTV cameras. Apart from this, ticket sales will also be monitored. Attention will also be paid to how many tickets are being sold every hour. Keeping this in mind, on-demand trains will be operated. To strengthen the security system at the railway station, the number of RPF jawans and railway servants of the commercial department of the railways will be increased, so that passengers can be guided and security arrangements can be strengthened.

Pilot project for crowd control:

Taking lessons from the incident of February 15, a high-level meeting was held today under the chairmanship of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav regarding crowd control at stations. In this meeting, it has been decided to create permanent outdoor waiting areas at 60 major stations of the country, in which

Pilot projects have started in New Delhi, Anand Vihar, Varanasi, Ayodhya and Patna.
Only passengers with confirmed tickets will be able to go to the platform at these stations
Whereas passengers without tickets or on waiting list will wait in the waiting area.
All unauthorized entry routes will be closed.
Additionally, for crowd management, foot over bridges, a large number of CCTV cameras, war rooms, state-of-the-art communication equipment, newly designed ID cards and staff with new uniforms will be deployed.
A senior officer will be made the station director at all major stations.
Who will be given financial powers and power to control ticket sales.

Chief Public Relations Officer Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay said that this time Northern Railway has made special arrangements for crowd control. A shelter will be made for passengers outside big railway stations like New Delhi, Anand Vihar , where passengers will get all the information related to the train. There will be arrangements for unreserved ticket counters, separate ticket counters for women, enquiry centers, food counters etc. Mobile and deluxe toilets will also be arranged. This will not cause problems to passengers traveling in general class. This arrangement will not increase the crowd on the platform. A security circle will be made for crowd management at New Delhi Railway Station, so that management can be done in case of sudden increase in the crowd.