Mumbai, Feb 16 : To ensure convenience of devotees travelling to Prayagraj for Mahakumbh-2025, Central Railway has introduced special trains and taken measures for crowd management across its network, an official said on Sunday.

To accommodate the surge in passengers, Central Railway has scheduled 42 special train services for Mahakumbh-2025. These include: 14 trips of CSMT-Mau-CSMT specials; 12 trips of Pune-Mau-Pune specials; 12 trips of Nagpur-Danapur-Nagpur specials and 4 trips of LTT-Banaras-LTT specials.

The official said, enhanced passenger facilities and crowd management measures have been taken by Central Railway at stations: Mumbai Division - CSMT, LTT, Thane, Kalyan; Pune Division - Pune, Daund, Ahmednagar, Miraj and Kolhapur; Bhusaval Division - Bhusaval, Manmad, Nashik Road and Khandwa; Nagpur Division - Nagpur, Ballarshah, Chandrapur, Sewagram, Betul and Pandurna and Solapur Division ' Solapur.

Measures taken at stations include controlled access to escalators and lifts to prevent overcrowding; unidirectional movement enforced on FOBs using dividers to streamline passenger flow; real-time crowd management through coordinated CCTV monitoring and announcements and strategic train placement to prevent multiple crowded trains arriving at adjacent platforms, the official said.

Central Railway has also mandated measures enroute and set an emergency response protocol.

'If a train stops due to Alarm Chain Pulling (ACP) or other reasons, train staff will immediately deboard to inform passengers, prevent misinformation, and ensure safety. Nearby stations and emergency control centers will be alerted to regulate other passing trains,' said the official.

The Mumbai Division has taken some additional measures for the convenience of pilgrims headed to Mahakumbh and these include running 3 daily trains from CSMT and 12 daily trains from LTT to Prayagraj, along with 2 special trains from Dadar (01025 & 01027).

Two Kumbh special trains (01033 & 01031) are operational, and one coach has been augmented in each of the two special trains (01025 & 01027) heading to Prayagraj, the official said.

Five additional UTS ticket counters have been opened at CSMT, LTT, Thane (TNA), and Kalyan (KYN) and commercial officers (3) and commercial inspectors (18) are deployed at key locations for rush monitoring, the official said.

Around 150 Ticket Checking (TC) personnel and 45 RPF staff are deputed in Prayagraj-bound trains for queue management and security.

/IANS