Maha Kumbh: Railway's special preparations for pilgrims; Know everything from the war room to operation of 13000 trains

The world's largest religious-cultural gathering Maha Kumbh 2025 has started in Prayagraj from Monday, January 13. The bathing festival of Maha Kumbh has also started with the bath on Paush Purnima. This time Maha Kumbh is different in many ways. This is because this time this coincidence is happening after 144 years. Also, 40 crore people are expected to come to this gathering, which will include a large number of Kalpvasis, devotees, and tourists from India and abroad. This figure is more than the population of many countries of the world. Indian Railways has also made special preparations for this.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav on Sunday launched several major initiatives to enhance the preparations of Indian Railways for the Maha Kumbh, which started in Prayagraj on Monday. Its aim is to provide safe, seamless, and technologically advanced services to lakhs of pilgrims attending this massive gathering for the next 45 days.

Railways have made special preparations for the convenience of devotees, pilgrims, and passengers coming to Maha Kumbh from all over the country. This includes a 24-hour Kumbh 'war room', CCTV cameras at all adjacent stations, a multilingual communication system and additional ticket counters, etc. Dilip Kumar, Executive Director of Information and Publicity, Railway Board, said that a dedicated 'war room' has been inaugurated at the Railway Board level. It will work 24 hours, in which officers of operations, commercial, RPF, mechanical, engineering, and electrical departments will monitor and coordinate the activities.

He informed that a total of 1,176 CCTV cameras have been installed at nine stations in the Prayagraj region to get real-time information for real-time monitoring. An announcement system of 12 languages ​​has also been inaugurated at Prayagraj, Naini, Chheoki, and Subedarganj stations to assist the pilgrims.

Regarding passenger facilities in the Prayagraj region, it was said that during the Maha Kumbh period, 10,000 regular trains, and 3134 special trains will be operated which is 4.5 times more than the last Kumbh. He informed me that 1,869 short-distance trains will be operated. Apart from this, 706 long-distance trains and 559 ring trains will also be operated for the convenience of pilgrims.