Diwali-Chhath special trains: Railways gears up for festive rush with 30 lakh additional berths

Amidst the festive rush ahead of Diwali and Chhath Puja, Indian Railways has introduced several measures to handle the festive rush this year. In view of the crowd in trains during festivals, Railways has announced to increase 30 lakh berths in its network.

This measure aims to eliminate the ‘regret’ situation that occurs when trains reach full booking capacity on the IRCTC platform.

According to a report in Dainik Jagran, Northern Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay said that a pilot project is currently being tested to address the ‘regretful’ situation and the initial response has been quite positive.

To accommodate the rising demand, Railways has already deployed 3,000 additional coaches in various trains, with more coaches to be deployed depending on the passenger traffic.

“Special trains “The launch has also been done for major destinations of Purvanchal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh and their detailed schedules are being announced,” an official was quoted as saying by the outlet.

‘Regret’ in railway ticket booking means that all available seats including confirmed, RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation), and waiting list (WL) seats are filled. This indicates that no more tickets can be issued for that class and quota in that train, and the booking system has exhausted all its capacity to issue even waitlisted tickets.

As more coaches are added by the system, more passengers can now book tickets even when the standard capacity is met trains With strong demand.

It is anticipated that this action will significantly reduce waiting queues and improve the ease of travel for passengers returning home during the festivals.

In September, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav announced that Indian Railways will operate 12,000 trainsSpecial train services for Chhath and Diwali festive season In Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar. “More than 10,000 special train journeys have already been notified,” he said.

In another passenger-friendly move that could make India’s most popular travel mode more flexible, the Railways is introducing a new policy that allows passengers to change the travel date of confirmed tickets without paying any cancellation charges or additional charges.

From January, passengers can rebook another train by paying only the fare difference, if any, as long as seats are available, instead of losing money due to cancellation.