In a bid to cater to the high demand of pilgrims heading to the Mahakumbh, 47 pairs of Kumbh Mela special trains are being operated by the Eastern Railway.

As pointed out by the Eastern Railway public relations officer in-charge, Diptimoy Dutta during a Press meet today, of the total, 27 pairs of trains are being operated between Howrah and Tundla while four pairs of trains run between Howrah and Bhind. Given the huge demand, 11 pairs are run between Malda Town and Prayagraj and five pairs of trains are being run between Bhagalpur and Kanpur Central for the event, which is also included on UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

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According to the PRO/IC, train services are being operated normally at all the stations of Prayagraj that are primarily catering to pilgrims.” Yesterday, a total of 330 trains, including Mela Special and regular trains, were operated from eight railway stations of the Prayagraj region — Prayagraj Junction, Prayag, Phaphamau, Prayagraj Rambagh, Jhusi, Subedarganj, Naini, and Prayagraj Chheoki catering to around 12.50 lakh devotees,” said Mr Dutta.

To oversee the situation, senior officials of the Railways are said to be monitoring the situation. “The general manager of North-Central zone along three divisional railway managers of Prayag, Varanasi and Lucknow are camping at the Mela venue to oversee the situation on ground,” informed Mr Ekalabya Chakraborty, DPO II of Sealdah. “To support this large-scale operation, additional staff, extra rakes, proper maintenance of rakes, CCTV monitoring, control towers, passenger shelters, and platform supervision by railway officials and employees have been arranged. Throughout the entire fair period, the railways has planned to operate approximately 13,450 trains, including 10,028 regular and over 3,400 special trains,” he added.