Kolkata, Oct 2 (IANS) With the festive season approaching, South Eastern Railway (SER) has announced a number of special trains to clear the passenger rush.
These trains will be run between various locations before Durga Puja, Diwali and Chhath for the convenience of passengers. Coaches have also been added to regular trains to increase capacity.
SER will run 19 pairs of special trains. These will make 344 trips during the festival season. In addition, one pair of special trains operated by other zonal railways will also run through SER’s network.
“We have also added 30 coaches permanently to various trains, further enhancing passenger-carrying capacity and strengthening the availability of accommodation on regular services,” an official said.
The special trains will originate from stations such as Shalimar, Santragachi, Digha, Ranchi, Hatia and Adityapur, and will run towards Charlapalli, Visakhapatnam, Khurda Road, Ajmer, Naharlagun, Puri, Thiruvananthapuram, Malda Town, Anand Vihar, Bano, Alipurduar, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Lucknow.
“A lot of planning was involved,” the official said, adding that reservation details had been studied to understand where people from a particular place wanted to travel. The trains were decided accordingly.
SER had run 19 special train services during the festive season in 2025. These trains had made 356 trips. Subsequently, eight pairs of these special trains were regularised as permanent services, providing passengers with continued connectivity beyond the festival season.
In addition, 28 special trains from other zones passed through SER’s jurisdiction.
In 2025, as many as 74 coaches were augmented on a permanent basis on various regular trains to meet the additional demand.
“These arrangements will help those travelling to tourist destinations during the festival season, as well as those returning home from their places of occupation,” the official said.
He added: “Hopefully, these arrangements will be sufficient. If required, further arrangements can be made depending on demand.”
–IANS
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