Starlink will be useful for remote area railway projects: Ashwini Vaishnaw
Union Minister for Railways, Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Wednesday welcomed Elon Musk’s affordable satellite internet service Starlink to India.
As preparations for a grand Mahakumbh 2025 gain momentum, the Railways are gearing up to enhance the experience for devotees and visitors, ensuring the availability of clean and hygienic food to them.The Prayagraj division of the railways has instructed all catering stall license holders to adhere to the prescribed rates and maintain cleanliness and hygiene in food services.
Additionally, all stalls have been directed to keep their goods systematically, ensure that employees wear proper uniforms and display name plates, and maintain polite behaviour towards the devotees.Notably, the railways are also expanding the services continuously to accommodate the influx of devotees and tourists during the Mahakumbh.
Himanshu Shukla, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, coaching, said here on Thursday that for Mahakumbh 2025, crores of devotees from across the country and abroad are expected to visit Prayagraj for darshan and bathing, with a significant number of them travelling by train.He said that it is the railways’ duty to offer the best services with dedication and assured full preparedness for the task.He also instructed all catering stall license holders to sell food at prescribed rates while maintaining hygiene.
Also, he directed that all stalls keep goods organized, ensure staff are properly dressed with nameplates, and maintain polite behavior towards devotees.He stated: “Regular and surprise inspections of stalls and passenger facilities will be conducted. Besides, license holders have been instructed to provide details of their base kitchens without delay. In addition,he encouraged the display of visitor books at the stalls inviting feedback from devotees and encouraging staff and license holders to contribute suggestions for improving public facilities.
The Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, coaching announced that over 13,000 trains will be operated for the convenience of devotees during the event.This includes more than 10,000 regular trains and over 3,000 special trains.To manage the massive flow of passengers, a total of 560 ticketing points, including UTS, ATVM, MUTS, enquiry, and PRS, will be set up across nine railway stations—Prayagraj Junction, Subedarganj, Naini, Prayagraj Chheoki, Prayag Junction, Phaphamau, Prayagraj Rambagh, Prayagraj Sangam, and Jhunsi, as well as in the fair area. Among these, 132 counters will be located at Prayagraj Junction, where approximately 10 lakh tickets can be distributed daily.
In view of the Mela, the Railways has now introduced the facility to book railway tickets 15 days in advance. A toll-free helpline number, 1800 4199 139, has been operational since November 1, 2024, and will be staffed with four operators per shift round-the-clock.This helpline will provide information in languages such as Odia, Tamil/Telugu, Marathi, and Bengali during the fair period. Additionally, a multilingual announcement system will be introduced for travel-related information in 12 languages—Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Odia, Punjabi, and Assamese—ensuring seamless communication for all devotees during Mahakumbh.
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