The Indian Railways will run 250 additional trains to meet the rush of passengers during the Diwali week.
The Western Railway will be running 200 trains, while the Eastern Railway has announced 50 new trains ahead of the Diwali and Chhath Puja festivities.
According to a Hindustan Times report, the Railways will be running over 120 trains on October 29 out of which 40 will be handled by the Mumbai division with 22 special trains for popular destinations in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha.
These new trains will be in addition to the existing trains, helping avoid more stampede-like situations. On October 27, at least 10 people were injured in a stampede at Mumbai's Bandra railway station when hundreds of people attempted to board a Gorakhpur-bound train to head to their native places for the upcoming Diwali and Chhath festivals, civic officials said.
The incident occurred at Platform 1 around 2:45am when the unreserved Bandra-Gorakhpur Antyodaya Express was "slowly moving" from the BDTS (Bandra Terminus) yard towards the platform before its scheduled departure at 5.10am.
According to the Western Railway (WR), the train was moving slowly from the yard towards the platform when several passengers made a dangerous attempt to board it. This led to injuries as two individuals fell while trying to get on board.
To handle the rush better, the Western Railway on October 28 said it has set up a holding area with a capacity of 500-600 passengers at Bandra Terminus.
"A passenger holding area of 370 square metres has been set up on the east side of the circulating area of Bandra Terminus for effective crowd management. This holding area can accommodate 500-600 passengers at a time.," WR chief public relations officer Vineet Abhishek told news agency PTI.
"It has adequate lighting and fans as well as three water fountains and a toilet block. A public address system will tell passengers in the holding area about train movements. It will allow safe and smooth journey for passengers," he added.
Since October 15, WR has operated 200 special services to clear the festival rush and 11 lakh people have travelled so far, Abhishek said. The move is part of its commitment to meet the rising passenger demand.
The Eastern Railway said it will run 50 new trains and 400 extra services during Diwali and Chhath.
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