New Delhi, February 22 (HS): All the departments and agencies have played their respective roles in the vast organization of the Mahakumbh which is going on at the confluence of the Ocean of Faith at Prayag Tirth, but the role of the Railways is undoubtedly the leading one.

The way in which the railways helped the pilgrims from all over the country to reach Prayag and Punyabhoomi in this huge event is not only unprecedented but also a unique record in many respects in terms of railway operations.

Although the Maha Kumbh is nearing its end, according to an estimate, 12 to 15 crore pilgrims took advantage of the train journey in this event of about one and a half months. In other words, about one-fourth of Mahakumbh pilgrims took the help of trains to reach major cities besides Prayagraj.

According to the Railways, this time the Railways played an important role in fulfilling the vision of making the Mahakumbh of Prayagraj divine and magnificent. It is needless to say how much pressure there is on the railways in our country, which has the largest population in the world. Railways have adopted special measures in view of the crowd in trains these days. Under this, special arrangements were made to relieve pressure on any route, train or major station.

Special trains were run one after another according to the number and demand of pilgrims.

Key highlights

● Pilgrims took advantage of more than 14 thousand trains

● So far 3.6 crore devotees have been handled in Kumbh area

● 92 percent trains were of mail, express, super-fast, passenger and memo categories while 472 Rajdhani and 282 Vande Bharat trains were operated.

● 50 percent of trains started from UP and came to Prayagraj region while 11 percent trains came from Delhi and 10 percent from Bihar

● 3 to 6 percent trains came from other states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, MP, Rajasthan and Gujarat

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar