With the ongoing festive season, the Indian Railways has had to make special arrangements on railway stations to make room for the rush that comes with it.

As per the railway officials, each year, the  New Delhi and Anand Vihar stations witness the most number of people during this season in Delhi, The Indian Express reported. To manage the flow of crowds, Northern Railways has arranged special facilities for passengers waiting for their trains.

This year, the railways has separated the waiting areas into designated spaces for passengers with reserved tickets and those with general tickets.“The tents have a wall-to-wall carpet laid down for passengers. Those with tickets beforehand will be escorted to an area with a red carpet whereas those without reserved seats will go to the area with the green carpet,” a railway official explained.

The waiting areas will also feature around six ticket counters and ATVM machines to allow passengers to purchase tickets quickly if needed. Besides this, 18 trains are on standby. “Based on the demand for tickets, we will be able to release unreserved trains on routes with high demand,” the official said. A control room on Platform 16 at NDLS will monitor any surges in demand.

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Two hour notice to passengers

The officials have said that passengers will be notified two hours beforehand via social media posts and announcements on the public announcement system.

As all Chhath special trains will depart from Platform 16 at NDLS, the station has been optimised for easy navigation and crowd management by the Railway Police. Bright yellow barricades line the outer premises of New Delhi station, guiding people onto the platform.

Last year’s number of passengers has propelled the number of general compartments to 60% more this year. About 41,000 seats were added in the general compartments last year. This year, 54,000 seats have been added. He added that 59 additional coaches have been attached to 49 regularly scheduled trains. This year, trains will operate 3,500 trips, a significant increase from the 1,086 trips last year.