150 Puja special trains from Sept 21 to Nov 30 to handle passenger rush

The Railway Board has issued notifications regarding the operation of 150 Puja special trains from September 21 to November 30, which will make a total of 2,024 trips to handle the extra rush of passengers.

Railway officials said that under the Puja special train series, South Central Railway will run the maximum number of 48 trains, completing 684 trips.

"These trains will be operated mainly from major stations like Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Vijayawada," a press note from the Railways said.

"East Central Railway has notified 14 trains which will pass through major stations of Bihar like Patna, Gaya, Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur and will make a total of 588 trips."  Officials said that Eastern Railway zone, which is among the busiest routes, will run 24 special trains from crowded stations like Kolkata, Sealdah and Howrah, managing 198 trips.

"While Western Railway has announced 24 special trains from cities like Mumbai, Surat, Vadodara to operate 204 trips, Southern Railway has also made preparations to put in service 10 such trains from stations like Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai to run 66 trips," they said.

Apart from this, special trains will be operated connecting stations like Bhubaneswar, Puri and Sambalpur from East Coast Railway; Ranchi, Tatanagar from South Eastern Railway; Prayagraj, Kanpur from North Central Railway; Bilaspur, Raipur from South East Central Railway and Bhopal, Kota from West Central Railway.

The Railway Ministry has recently announced 12,000 special trains during the festive seasons from various parts of the country and officials said that this is the first lot of special trains which have been notified.

"More trains will be notified in the coming days, considering the travel needs of passengers," the officials said.