Chhath Puja 2025: East Central Railway Deploys Extra Trains For Return Journey

The East Central Railway (ECR) has begun special preparations to manage the return journey of passengers traveling home for the Chhath festival. Holding areas are being established at major stations, and additional trains will be operated based on passenger rush, with extra rakes kept on standby.

This information was provided by Chhatrasal Singh, the General Manager of East Central Railway, at a press conference held on Wednesday in the war room at the Pataliputra rail complex in Patna.

The General Manager stated that a large number of passengers are coming to Bihar from other states, and their return journey is expected to begin next week. The operation of additional trains will be based on UTS and ticketing data. All ticket counters at the stations will remain open.

Monitoring And Passenger Facilities

Mr Singh explained that all stations are being monitored 24 hours a day via CCTV from a centrally established war room, as well as from control rooms in all five divisions: Danapur, Sonpur, Varanasi, Dhanbad, and Samastipur. Directives are being issued as needed.

He noted that more than 12,000 special trains are currently being run, and this number could increase. To ensure information is easily available, continuous announcements regarding train movements are being made at stations.

Several passenger assistance measures are in place:

'May I Help You' booths have been set up at major stations.

A medical assistance booth will be operational 24*7.

In addition to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and police, Scouts and Guides will be deployed.

Security And Crowd Management

The General Manager confirmed that additional security forces have been deployed at stations and on trains. All necessary steps for crowd management are being taken by establishing coordination between the Government Railway Police (GRP) and the RPF to ensure passengers do not face inconvenience.

Additional TTEs, RPF personnel, and officials have been deployed at more crowded stations. The RPF is maintaining constant vigilance for passenger safety and has deployed dog squads at some stations. An instruction has also been issued to exercise extra caution around ponds located near railway tracks on the day of the puja.

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CPRO Saraswati Chandra, along with the heads of major ECR departments, was present at the press conference.

Review Meeting Held

On Wednesday, at the war room in Patna, General Manager Chhatrasal Singh also held a review meeting with department heads and the Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) of all divisions. During the meeting, the GM conducted a thorough review of ECR's preparations for the ChhathMahaparv, focusing on crowd management, passenger facilities and safety, and the operation of additional festival special trains for the return journey. He issued necessary directives based on the review.

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