Festive rail arrangements include over 18,000 additional trains

Festive rail arrangements include more than 18,000 additional trains and monitoring at 28 important stations, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in New Delhi. The measures are intended to handle passenger demand over the Deepavali weekend.

The ministry has established a control room to track crowd levels across the selected stations. Vaishnaw displayed a live dashboard while explaining how officials were following conditions across the network.

He said the preparations included extra waiting space at stations as well as additional train services. The reported number of extra trains exceeds the 12,000 special services arranged around the same period last year.

Minister describes response to New Delhi station crowds

New Delhi railway station was the only location to reach the ministry's severe-crowding threshold, according to the account presented. Heavy passenger numbers developed there from around 4 p.m. on Friday, November 6.

Vaishnaw said additional trains helped clear that build-up within four hours. He added that the station did not experience a similar accumulation on Saturday morning, November 7.

The Festive rail arrangements have also benefited from track additions at several stations, the minister said. He linked that work to the ability to provide more halts and accommodate additional services during the busy period.

The dashboard is being used to keep track of conditions at the 28 stations rather than relying solely on reports of queues. The minister's account focused on the combination of monitoring, waiting areas and extra trains.

His statement covered both the scale of the seasonal preparations and the response at the station where the highest crowd level had been recorded. The ministry is continuing to follow station crowds during the holiday weekend, with the control room tracking developments across the selected locations.

Also read: Tamil Nadu launches ₹100 vegetable packs for Deepavali | Indira Gandhi remembered by Congress on death anniversary