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‘Over 3000 special trains, 554 ticketing counters, 1176 CCTV cameras’- Indian Railways plan to cater the Mahakumbh
A total of 40 crore pilgrims are expected to visit during Maha Kumbh 2025 and out of this 5 crore pilgrims are anticipated on Mauni Amavasya alone on January 29.
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A total of 40 crore pilgrims are expected to visit during Maha Kumbh 2025 and out of this 5 crore pilgrims are anticipated on Mauni Amavasya alone on January 29. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav)Over 3,000 special trains, a 4.5 times higher number than the 2019 Ardh Kumbh, of which nearly a fourth are long distance trains, 554 ticketing counters that include 151 mobile Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) counters, over 1,000 CCTV cameras for real-time monitoring, 12 language announcement system in stations around Prayagraj and a dedicated war room to keep a tab — all are part of the Indian Railways’ plan to cater the pilgrims coming across the country for the biggest congregation on Earth: the Mahakumbh.
As the Paush Purnima marks the beginning of the venerated festival of the sacred pitcher on Monday, officials in the Ministry of Railways said that the more advanced initiatives have been taken this time to provide safe, seamless, and technologically advanced services for millions of pilgrims. As part of this measure, a total of 1176 CCTV cameras have been installed at 9 stations in the Prayagraj region of North Central Railways (NCR) to provide live feeds for real-time monitoring.
“A total of 12-language announcement systems have been started at Prayagraj, Naini, Cheoki, and Subedarganj stations to assist pilgrims. Along with this a 22 language booklet is available at the station to provide complete details on the Kumbh for those passengers who are coming from the different states,” said an official.
For the movement of the millions of pilgrims, the Indian Railways is running a total of 10,000 regular trains, out of this a total of 3134 trains are special trains. Officials said that there are a total of 1869 short-distance trains, 706 long distance trains and 559 ring trains plying for the Mahakumbh.
A comparison of facilities made by Indian Railways during Ardh Kumbh in 2019 and Mahakumbh 2025. (Source: Ministry of Railways)
“Freight trains have been diverted to Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) to ensure smooth passenger train operations. An investment of Rs. 5,000 crore has been made over the past three years for Kumbh-related projects,” said a senior official of the Ministry of Railways.
Along with this, a total of 48 platforms, 21 Foot over Bridges (FoBs), 23 permanent holding areas with a combined capacity of over 1 lakh pilgrims, 554 ticketing counters, including 151 mobile UTS counters and 21 Road Over Bridges/Road Under Bridges (ROBs/RUBs) to enhance road and rail mobility have been earmarked for the Kumbh passengers.
The ministry of Railways has also taken up some major infrastructure projects such as Banaras-Prayagraj doubling project (including the Ganga Bridge) and Phaphamau-Janghai doubling project for the Mahakumbh.
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“The total cost of these projects are Rs. 3700 crore. The key section connecting to the Sangam and adjoining areas have been completed. The work on other sections is ongoing,” said the official quoted above.
A total of 40 crore pilgrims are expected to visit during Maha Kumbh 2025 and out of this 5 crore pilgrims are anticipated on Mauni Amavasya alone on January 29.
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