More than 48 lakh passengers have travelled to Prayagraj by train since the Maha Kumbh began on January 13. The Railways is making additional preparations for the coming Mauni Amavasya, a significant event in the Kumbh schedule. According to the Railways, of the 48.7 lakh passengers who travelled to the nine stations in Prayagraj until January 26, the most — 13.87 lakh — were on Makar Sankranti on January 14. Makar Sankranti is among the main bathing days (snan) of the Kumbh. Another key snan day is Mauni Amavasya that falls on January 29: on the day, around 10 crore pilgrims are expected to take a dip in the Triveni Sangam, with around 10% of them expected to travel by train. The Prayagraj Railway Division has planned to run over 150 special trains during the day time — a train every four minutes — from all nine stations: Prayagraj Junction, Subedarganj, Naini, Prayagraj Chheoki, Prayag Junction, Phaphamau, Prayagraj Rambagh, Prayagraj Sangam and Jhunsi. During the Ardh Kumbh 2019, the Railways had run 85 trains for the devotees. To streamline passenger movement, colour-coded shelters have been set up at all stations for unreserved passengers. These shelters are organised based on passengers' destination stations, with each colour corresponding to specific routes. Overall, to manage the massive flow of passengers, 560 ticketing points, including unreserved ticketing system, automatic ticket vending machines, enquiry, and passenger reservation system have been set up. Among these, 132 counters are located at Prayagraj Junction, where around 10 lakh tickets can be distributed daily. According to the Uttar Pradesh government, the Maha Kumbh had drawn over 13 crore devotees so far. More flights after govt nudge New Delhi: Budget airlines SpiceJet and Akasa Air will be adding more flights to the Prayagraj airport amid heavy passenger flows for the Mahakumbh, which have resulted in a surge in airfares to and from the holy city. According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), SpiceJet is set to launch flights between Prayagraj and Delhi, Chennai, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Jaipur, and Hyderabad, adding around 43,000 seats in February. Over the next few days, Akasa Air will also start operating flights connecting Prayagraj with Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. The airline plans to operate nine flights from Ahmedabad and 12 flights from Bengaluru, adding around 4,000 seats. —ENS
