The biggest challenge of the year for Indian Railways, the festive season, is just about to arrive. During this time, people travel from one city to another on a large scale to celebrate festivals. For this, the cheapest, most comfortable, and safest means of travel is by train.
In such a situation, the railways face a big challenge in transporting crores of people to their homes during the festivals. This scramble for train tickets starts from Durga Puja and continues until Chhath. This one month proves to be very challenging for the Indian Railways. The railways have decided to run 6,000 special trains to handle the festive season crowd this year. Also, the number of general coaches will increase on almost all trains.
There Is A Huge Demand On The Routes Of Bihar, UP and West Bengal
During Durga Puja, Diwali, and Chhath, there is a huge crowd on many rail routes, especially in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday that the railways have geared up for this year’s festive season. We will not cause any inconvenience to the passengers. So far, a total of 5,975 special trains have been announced. Last year, this number was 4,429. He said this will facilitate more than one crore passengers going home during the Puja.
Additional General Class Coaches Will Also Be Added To Every Train
Durga Puja festival (Durga Puja 2024) will run from 9 October to 13 October. Diwali (2024) will be celebrated this year on 31 October, while Chhath Puja is on 7 and 8 November. Railway officials said the number of special trains could increase further if the demand increased. Railway Minister Vaishnaw said that given the excessive rush during the festivals, apart from adding additional general class coaches in 108 trains, approval has also been given to make 12,500 new coaches of this category.
