SCR operates 162 Special Trains for Dussehra festival

Hyderabad: South Central Railway has operated 162 special trains and attached 352 extra coaches during the peak rush period of the ten-day holiday season from lit October to 10th October on account of Dussehra festival and carried nearly 2 lakh extra passengers.

Dussehra is an important festival being celebrated on a grand scale in both the Telugu states as well as Eastern parts of the country. Generally, during these period continuous holidays are being declared by Schools & Colleges resulting in the mobility of passengers on the higher side. In addition to this, the employees of State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) in Telangana State went on strike impacting the movement of buses and holiday rush. Keeping the situation into consideration, South Central Railway announced special trains and augmented extra coaches to regular trains on large scale to cater the extra rush.

During the period from 1st to 10th October SCR has operated 162 special trains to various destinations. This includes 98 reserved trains and 64 Jansadharan special trains. These Jansadharan special trains are exclusively announced to cater the passengers of short distance covering most of the Telangana region benefitting the passengers travelling between Kacheguda - Nizamabad, Kacheguda - Kurnool City, Kazipet- Bhadrachalam, Nanded - Aurangabad, Hyderabad - Sirpur Kaghaznagar etc. In addition, a total of 352 extra coaches were attached to regular express trains to benefit the passengers in the waiting list. All these efforts of the zone made SCR carry around 2 lakh extra passengers during this ten-day period i.e., from 1st to 10th October.

The initiative of South Central Railway in developing Lingampalli station as one of the important terminals in twin cities has yielded good results and a maximum number of passengers were boarded from this station which is almost double than the regular traffic from this station. In addition, SCR has strategically planned to regulate the rush at Secunderabad station by operating most of the Jansadharan special trains from Kacheguda and Hyderabad Station. These initiatives resulted in decongestion of Secunderabad station during the peak season.

To handle the additional traffic at all the four major terminals in twin cities viz., Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Kacheguda & Lingampalli stations, the zone has taken steps by deploying Railway Officials and supervisors at all these stations to monitor the rush and to ensure the working of all the Passenger Amenities and facilities to avoid inconvenience to the rail users.

Apart from that, crowd handling at the booking counters has been monitored by means of providing additional booking counters. Rail users were also guided to purchase tickets from Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs), Currency operated Ticket Vending Machines (CoTVMs) and also advised to use UTS on mobile App for purchasing the unreserved tickets. Security was beefed up by deploying additional Railway Protection Force personnel to avoid any untoward incident and continuous monitoring of crowd through CCTV's cameras is being done.

Ticket checking staff were deployed in huge numbers to monitor crowd control and to eradicate ticketless travelling. Dissemination of the information has been done through Print, Electronic and Social Media regarding special trains and other details to rail passengers at regular intervals. The information regarding special and regular trains are also being communicated to the passengers by making frequent announcements through Passenger Address system and also displaying through LED/Train information display boards.

SCR General Manager Gajanan Mallya appreciated the efforts and teamwork of all the Officers and staff of the zone in smooth handling of the festival rush. He also advised all the staff and officers to gear up for handling the return journey rush expecting in the next 4 to 5 days.