Kolkata: Eastern Railway is operating 18 Holi special trains that are doing 86 trips in total. The routes include between Sealdah-New Jalpaiguri (4 trips), Malda Town-Charlapalli (2 trips), Howrah-Anand Vihar Terminal (18 trips), Kolkata-Lalkuan and Kolkata-Kanpur Central and several other destinations across India.
The special trains that have started on March 6 will run till March-end. The initiative aims at facilitating passengers travelling home for Holi celebrations and their subsequent return to workplaces.
Eastern Railway has also implemented arrangements across Howrah, Sealdah, Asansol and Malda divisions with measures that focus on effective crowd management at stations and overbridges to prevent stampedes like the one at the New Delhi station.
Holding areas have been identified and their capacity defined for segregated and systematic flow of unreserved passengers to stations. CCTV live feed from platforms will be monitored 24x7, with senior supervisors at station and divisional control rooms keeping a close watch on the crowd build-up. RPF and other field staff have been authorised to take action to regulate or reduce overcrowding.
The railway authorities have also prioritised station cleanliness and drinking water availability.
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