386 special trains, 5,743 buses to Konkan to cater to festive rush

CR officials said stations such as CSMT, Dadar, Thane and Panvel are witnessing heavy passenger movement, with packed platforms, long queues and hundreds waiting for trains during peak hours

Mumbai: With the railways running 386 special trains to cater to the rush to travel to the Konkan for the Ganpati festival, more than 250,000 passengers have reserved their tickets while another 100,000 passengers are likely to travel in unreserved services between the Chhatrapati Shivaji Manahraj Terminus (CSMT) and Sawantwadi.

Photo for representation (Hindustan Times)

The 386 special trains include 258 services operated by Central Railway (CR), 64 by Western Railway, 58 by Konkan Railway and six by South Central Railway. The-state run Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has also deployed special buses to cater to the festive rush.

CR officials said stations such as CSMT, Dadar, Thane and Panvel are witnessing heavy passenger movement, with packed platforms, long queues and hundreds waiting for trains during peak hours.

“The biggest challenge for us is crowd management,” a CR official said. Additional security and crowd-control arrangements have been deployed – in coordination with the Railway Protection Force (RPF), Government Railway Police (GRP) and local police – to prevent overcrowding and ensure smooth passenger movement, the official said.

Referring to complaints about train number 15087 having unclean coaches and torn seats, the official said the train was awaiting cleaning at CSMT when passengers boarded it. “Few coaches linked with another train had arrived from north India and were yet to be cleaned before opening up for passengers. However people entered even before it was done,” the official said.

Complaints have also been received about passengers locking train doors from inside, preventing other passengers from boarding trains at stations like Thane and Panvel.

“We have asked security personnel to keep watch on the same, as it leads to wastage of time and delays train operations,” another CR official said.

Unreserved tickets will be available through the UTS system and the RailOne app, and reservation counters on Central Railway will be open for half a day on Monday, as per the schedule followed on Sundays.

The MSRTC is operating 5,743 special bus services from September 10-13 from Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and other divisions to the Konkan and other parts of Maharashtra. The highest number of buses, at 3,028, will operate on September 11, followed by 2,425 on September 12.