Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday said that Indian Railways would run nearly 13,000 trains for the convenience of devotees during the Maha Kumbh.
Twhichincludes 3,000 special trains
Vaishnaw, who took a train to Prayagraj to review the Railways’ preparations for the mega event, estimates nearly 1.5 to 2 crore passengers to reach the city by train during the mela, as per the report.
The Maha Kumbh is on January 13 on the occasion of Paush Purnima and will be over on February 26 on Mahashivratri.
“I also inspected the new bridge built over the Ganga, which will soon be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A new bridge has been built over the Ganga here after 100 years,” reported PTI quoting Vaishnaw.
According to the agency report, the minister has inspected five stations. These involve inspecting the holding areas of these stations where the devotees will be able to sit till their trains arrive. “Colour coding has been used in the holding areas and tickets so that the devotees can reach the right platform,” said the union minister, cited in the news report.
Vaishnaw also said that the mobile UTS application would be used in Prayagraj for the first time; earlier, it was used in Puri during the Rath Yatra, as per the report.
“For the Maha Kumbh, the railway track on the Prayagraj-Varanasi route has been doubled. The Phaphamau-Janghai section has been doubled. A second entrance has been built at the Jhansi, Phaphamau, Prayagraj, Subedarganj, Naini and the Cheoki stations,” said Vaishnaw cited the news agency.
He also said that a control room will be set up at every station, which will provide a live video feed to the master control room at the Prayagraj station. The CCTV feed from the Maha Kumbh Nagar and the police will be accessible from the master control room, as per the news report.
The union minister said that over 23 holding areas have been built at various stations in Prayagraj, other than the 48 platforms. Apart from the holding areas, there are 21-foot overbridges and arrangements for 554 kiosk ticketing desks.
The Indian railway has spent over ₹5,000 crore preparing for the Maha Kumbh in the last two years, according to Vaishnaw, reported the news agency.
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