SER taking steps to clear festive passenger rush: GM
The Statesman | 23 October 2025Soumitra Majumdar, additional general manager and other principals head of the departments also attended the session. In his address, the general manager stated that Indian Railway is running more than 12,000 special trains in the current year as compared to 7,724 special trains last year during the festival season of Durga Puja, Diwali & Chhat Puja. The SER GM said South Eastern Railway has run 922 special trains till Monday in the current year as compared to 832 runs last year.
To regulate heavy rush while boarding or after de-boarding, temporary holding areas have been developed at major stations this year. Stations have been identified for permanent holding areas for next year and beyond.
War rooms are functional at South Eastern Railway Headquarters and all the four divisional Headquarters for CCTV monitoring through live feed and immediate solving of complaints/ grievances/ problems of passengers. South Eastern Railway currently operating six regular special trains and 11 additional festival specials. Around 16 specials run by other zonal railways are also being run over SER jurisdiction now. The GM said that daily monitoring of footfalls per day is being monitored at major stations. Footfall at Ranchi station has increased from 53,000 to 58,000 as compared to last year. Tatanagar and Shalimar are having the same footfall as compared to last year.
By gathering all the spare coaches, 20 extra rakes have been formed by South Eastern Railway so that special trains according to demand can be run .11 rakes are being utilised by South Eastern Railway whereas 9 rakes have been deputed by Railway Board to run special trains from other parts of India. To ensure safety of passengers, all trains are being escorted by RPF and commercial staff to control unauthorised entry in reserve coaches and for guidance of passengers, informed the SER officials.
Photo Caption: Shri Anil Kumar Mishra, General Manager, South Eastern Railway holding a media briefing session at SER Headquarters, Garden Reach on 21.10.2025. Shri Soumitra Majumdar, Additional General Manager and other Principals Head of the Departments also attended the session.
