Trains jam-packed after Diwali weekend rush

Staff Reporter

First the rush was for Diwali when everyone wanted to head home for the festivities. Now, with Diwali vacations over, trains are jam-packed with people heading back to their work stations. Almost all the Railway stations in city are witnessing heavy rush as families head back after five days of revelry. Further, the weekend rush and everyone bound by compulsion to report back at work places by Monday, the surge in travellers this year is quite unprecedented.

For Railways, the period from Dussehra (also referred to as Puja in Eastern part of the country) till Christmas holiday is a peak period wherein lakhs of people criss-cross the country. This year, the festivities had special meaning as post Covid-19, for first time citizens could breathe in fresh air without bothering or harbouring fear about physical contact or worrying about the masks. So people had pre-booked their travel tickets to avoid last minute rush.

In city and region, the focus point is Pune, Mumbai and to some extent Hyderabad and Bengaluru where maximum youth have more or less settled. Hence Diwali provides the opportunity for such persons to retrace their roots and mingle with extended families and relieve the tensions. The situation was thus stretched to limits for the railway officials as after form crowd management at stations and in trains they also have to ensure that people safely reach their destinations.

Just after Diwali from Nagpur there is rush of people towards North India for the Chhath festival. This year Indian Railways introduced Chhath special and also increased number of trains towards Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where the festival is celebrated on major scale. With increased mobility, people try to stay connected with their natives place and festival is that time when each and everyone heads back to roots. Since this time around the schools are closed, the families have the avaliable window and thus more footfalls are there to be seen in trains. Already pre-diwali and post diwali booking were suspended as maximum avaliable quota was pre-booked by the travellers. On roads also there is heavy rush as additional buses are plying to meet the festival and weekend demand.