With crores of pilgrims to converge at Prayagraj during the next one and a half month, the national transporter Indian Railways’ have pulled up its socks to facilitate a smooth and memorable spiritual journey for people from length and breadth of the country.
During the last one month Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has inaugurated several key initiatives to enhance railways’ readiness for the Maha Kumbh 2025 in the Prayagraj region.
These measures aim to provide safe, seamless, and technologically advanced services for millions of pilgrims. Some of the key announcements and inaugurations include launch of the Kumbh War Room which is a dedicated War Room at the Railway Board which will operate 24x7, with officials from Operations, Commercial, RPF, Mechanical, Engineering, and Electrical departments monitoring and coordinating activities.
A total of 1,176 CCTV cameras have been installed at nine stations in the Prayagraj region to provide live feeds for real-time monitoring viz monitoring structures like platforms, stations. The War Room will facilitate effective coordination between district authorities and railway officials, ensuring immediate assistance and operational efficiency.
Further a multilingual Communication Systems which will have 12-language announcement system inaugurated at Prayagraj, Naini, Cheoki, and Subedarganj stations to assist pilgrims besides the launch of a facilitation booklet in 22 languages, providing essential information for the pilgrims.
As part of the Rail Network Enhancements a total of 13,000 trains will operate during the Kumbh period which includes 10,000 regular trains; 3,134 special trains (4.5 times more than the previous Kumbh); 1,869 short-distance trains; 706 long-distance trains; 559 ring trains. Freight trains have been diverted to Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) to ensure smooth passenger train operations.
Railway officials said an investment of Rs 5,000 crore has been made over the past three years for Kumbh-related projects like for passenger facilities like 48 platforms and 21 Foot Over Bridges (FoBs), 23 permanent holding areas with a combined capacity of over one lakh pilgrims, 554 ticketing counters, including 151 mobile UTS counters. 21 ROBs/RUBs to enhance road and rail mobility.
