OREANDA-NEWS. January 14, 2013.  The Indian Railways has made elaborate and varied arrangements and undertaken several measures to provide adequate facilities for several lakhs of pilgrims who are expected to visit the Kumbh Mela which begins at Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, from tomorrow i.e. 14th January 2013. Zonal Railways, especially North Central Railway (Headquarters: Allahabad), North Eastern Railway (Headquarters: Gorakhpur) and Northern Railway (Headquarters: Delhi) have geared up their respective machineries in a big way to ensure maximum facilities and comfort for the huge travelling public in connection with the Kumbh Mela. The special focus has been given in creating facilities in and around Allahabad. The measures and facilities undertaken by the Railway administration include additional ticketing, booking, enquiry counters, new Foot Over Bridges, escalators, new washable aprons, several special trains, extra coaches in popular trains, revamping of platforms and waiting halls, new enclosures with water taps and toilets, additional deployment of security, CCTV monitoring, medical facilities, deployment of additional staff,   effective mechanism for crowd management and officers’ committees for monitoring and supervision.  The details are as follows:-

-     Arrangements for temporary holding and dispersal of pilgrims, their Booking, comfort, safety etc., at Allahabad, Naini/Cheoki, Vindhyachal & Chitrakoot on North Central Railway, Allahabad City (Rambagh) & Jhusi of North Eastern Railway and Prayag & Prayag Ghat stations of Northern Railway.
•         Running of special Trains for dispersal. 
•         Facilitation Arrangements in Sangam area Comprising Booking and Passenger information.

-     Major Works for Kumbh 2013:
•         New and wider Foot Over Bridge (FOB at Smith Road along with new Ticketing Counters for ease of access to platform  no. 4,5,6,7,8, 9 & 10.
•         New FOB at Naini.
•         Improvement of FOB stairs & platform surface at Allahabad and Naini Junctions.
•         Escalators installed and tested at Allahabad Junction.
•         Improvement in circulating area by covering of Hathi Nala and widening of Roads along with station building extension at Allahabad civil lines side.
•         New Washable aprons provided at platform 7, 8 & 9 at Allahabad and platform no. 3 & 4 at Naini.
•         Watering, coach maintenance & cleaning facilities have been augmented for Kumbh at Allahabad, Naini, Cheoki and Subedarganj.
•         All electric cables on FOB laid through cable trays at Allahabad Junction as a safety measure. 
•         Extention of FOB to cover pf 3,4 & 5 at Allahabad city
•         Additional full length running line no 6 with platform facility at Allahabad city
•         Raising and extention of platform 5 upto medium level (550m) Allahabad city
•         Augmentation of hydrant pipe from 12 coaches to 18 coaches at pf 2 in Allahabad city

-     Operations planned:

•         Nearly 800 extra coaches being requisitioned by NCR (Total about 1900 by 3 Rlys. – NCR, North Eastern Railway (NER) and Northern Railway (NR).
•         Nearly 37 mela special rakes to be formed, by NCR.
•         Over 750 special trains by NCR to run during mela period.
•         Special Exp trains to be run & Extra Coaches in existing trains
•         Additional stoppage to be given at Etawah, Allahabad, Naini, cheokki & vindhyachal stations.
•         A number of special trains being time tabled.
•         Additional Electric and diesel locos being planned
•         Restrictions to avoid inconvenience :

Goods traffic will be restricted during Mela period at Subedarganj, Naini, Mirzapur, etc.

Parcel Booking will be restricted during Mela period at Allahabad, Naini.

Four pairs of long distance trains to be diverted avoiding Allahabad from 01.02.2013 to 20.02.2013.

-     Holding of Passengers while waiting of special trains:


•   Adequate number of signage’s to guide passengers to the relevant enclosures giving direction wise colour codes for convenience of passengers.

•   7 enclosures at Allahabad city, 5 at Daraganj & 4 at Jhunsi each enclosure to have capacity to hold 2400-6000 passengers

•   To hold the passengers, 4 enclosures at city side of Allahabad junction, 2 numbers of enclosures for emergency at civil lines side of Allahabad station & 3 numbers of enclosures at Naini station have already been built.

•   Enclosures are colour coded for direction wise traffic.

Enclosure 1 is “RED” in colour, for Satana side – Being dealt from PF 1.
Enclosure 2 is “GREEN” colour for Jhansi side – Being dealt from PF 1.
Enclosure 3 is “Yellow” colour for Mgs side – Being dealt from PF 4/6.
Enclosure 4 is “BLUE” colour for Kanpur side – Being dealt from PF 2/3.

Similar coding is being done at Naini for ease of Passengers.
Special trains towards Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Balia and chapra directions will depart from Allahabad city & Jhusi stations of North Eastern Railways.
Special trains towards Lucknow, Jaunpur, Ayodhya, faizabad, sultanpur and Pratapgarh directions will depart from Prayag and Prayag Ghat stations of Northern Railway.
Enclosures will have Facilities like: Ticketing Counters, Water Taps, Toilet, urinals, Wash Basins, Vending Stalls, Displays for train information, announcement system, mobile charging points etc along with CCTV arrangements for passenger’s security.
All the enclosures will be monitored by a control Office manned round the clock at the top of station building both at Allahabad Junction and Naini.

-     Additional Passenger facilities being provided:
At Allahabad : One new foot over bridge, two Escalators, vending stalls in each enclosure, 54 Urinals, 96 Toilets, 116 Drinking water taps, six First Aid Posts, Missing & Found information Centers , Scout & Guide assistance, Luggage Cloak room, adequate lighting arrangement with Backup, Emergency lighting in case of power failure with separate circuit, Improvement of circulating area.
At Naini/Cheoki: Additional FOB, Vending Stalls in each enclosures, 54 Drinking water taps, 32 Urinals, 57 Toilets, three First Aid Posts, Raising  of Platform No 1, Extension of Platform No 1, 3 & 4, widening of  Platform No 4, Resurfacing of all 4 Platforms, Widening of Road & Circulating Area, Improvement of Upper class & Ladies Waiting Hall, Adequate lighting arrangement, Backup arrangement for electrical supply, Missing & Found information Centers
At Sangam Area: 12 Drinking water taps, Toilets & Urinals, Vending Stalls.
At Vindhayachal: 10 additional water taps, Toilets & Urinals, First aid post, Luggage Cloak room, Scout & Guide Hut.
Allahabad city: 24 nos booking counters, 195 Latrines and Urinals, 100 water taps, provision of 50000 gallon RCC overhead tank, 06 vending stalls, scout and guide assistance, clock room
Daraganj: 20 Booking counters, 06 vending stall, 01 Enquiry counter, 90 water taps, First aid post, 04 passenger shelters
Jhunsi : 24 booking counters, 01 enquiry counters, 07 vending stalls, 65 water taps, 4 temporary enlosures, 01 first aid post
Special arrangement to allow reverse tickets by UTS 15 days in advance from 10th Jan 2013 to 12th of March 2013 (For Allahabad, Naini, Cheoki & Vindhayachal) which previously was only 2 days in advance excluding day of journey for distance more than 200 km.

-     Security Arrangements:
Additional Railway Protection Force (RPF) from other Railways (13 / 14 companies of RPF/RPSF).
Additional CCTV monitoring systems with additional cameras at Allahabad, at Naini, and at Sangam & Vindhyachal.
Additional Dog squad (about 15 nos.) being called for.
Training of RPF/RPSF staff for stampede avoidance and behaviour aspects.

-     Medical & Sanitation facilities
Additional Doctors being called for.
Establishing First Aid Posts at Allahabad, Naini, Vindhayachal, Manikpur, Chitrakoot and mela area near sangam, manned by doctors and para medicals.
Special Sanitation arrangements for Enclosures.
Management of Potable Drinking water by regular sampling.
Food Stuff and Vendors - Food sampling under Quality Control.
Control of flies and Mosquitoes etc. (57 fly catchers installed at Allahabad Jn.)

-     Training of Staff:
•         Training of Coolies, RPF/GRP staff and Ticket checking commercial staff.
•         Training basically on behavioural aspects, for guiding passengers etc.
-     Additional Staff: All this will be managed by internal staff of NCR plus additional 4500 staff (including RPF) from various other railways.

-     Various committees have been nominated at officer / Sr. Supervisor level to monitor various arrangements. (Sanitation & cleanliness committee, Watering committee, Passenger amenities committee, security & crowd management committee & catering committee.)