Railways Make Adequate Arrangments to Ensure Maximum Facilities for Pilgrims of Kumbh Mela - 2013

The Indian Railways has made elaborate and varied arrangements and undertaken several measures to provide adequate facilities for several lakhs of pilgrims who are expected to visit the Kumbh Mela which begins at Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, from tomorrow i.e. 14th January 2013. Zonal Railways, especially North Central Railway (Headquarters: Allahabad), North Eastern Railway (Headquarters: Gorakhpur) and Northern Railway (Headquarters: Delhi) have geared up their respective machineries in a big way to ensure maximum facilities and comfort for the huge travelling public in connection with the Kumbh Mela. The special focus has been given in creating facilities in and around Allahabad. The measures and facilities undertaken by the Railway administration include additional ticketing, booking, enquiry counters, new Foot Over Bridges, escalators, new washable aprons, several special trains, extra coaches in popular trains, revamping of platforms and waiting halls, new enclosures with water taps and toilets, additional deployment of security, CCTV monitoring, medical facilities, deployment of additional staff,   effective mechanism for crowd management and officers’ committees for monitoring and supervision.  The details are as follows:-

Ø      Arrangements for temporary holding and dispersal of pilgrims, their Booking, comfort, safety etc., at Allahabad, Naini/Cheoki, Vindhyachal & Chitrakoot on North Central Railway, Allahabad City (Rambagh) & Jhusi of North Eastern Railway and Prayag & Prayag Ghat stations of Northern Railway.

·         Running of special Trains for dispersal.

·         Facilitation Arrangements in Sangam area Comprising Booking and Passenger information.

Ø      Major Works for Kumbh 2013:

·         New and wider Foot Over Bridge (FOB at Smith Road along with new Ticketing Counters for ease of access to platform  no. 4,5,6,7,8, 9 & 10.

·         New FOB at Naini.

·         Improvement of FOB stairs & platform surface at Allahabad and Naini Junctions.

·         Escalators installed and tested at Allahabad Junction.

·         Improvement in circulating area by covering of Hathi Nala and widening of Roads along with station building extension at Allahabad civil lines side.

·         New Washable aprons provided at platform 7, 8 & 9 at Allahabad and platform no. 3 & 4 at Naini.

·         Watering, coach maintenance & cleaning facilities have been augmented for Kumbh at Allahabad, Naini, Cheoki and Subedarganj.

·         All electric cables on FOB laid through cable trays at Allahabad Junction as a safety measure.

·         Extention of FOB to cover pf 3,4 & 5 at Allahabad city

·         Additional full length running line no 6 with platform facility at Allahabad city

·         Raising and extention of platform 5 upto medium level (550m) Allahabad city

·         Augmentation of hydrant pipe from 12 coaches to 18 coaches at pf 2 in Allahabad city

Summary of Additional Ticketing and enquiry counters:

                       

Item	Allahabad	Sangam	Naini/Cheoki	Vidhyanchal	Total
Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS)	63	10	38	04	115
National Train Enquiry Counter (NTES)	07	02	06	01	16
Passenger Reservation System (PRS)	--	02	--	--	02
TOTAL	70	14	44	5	133