Howrah Division of Eastern Railway will operate 174 Durga Puja special-train trips and introduce additional passenger and crowd-management measures to handle the festival rush from Mahalaya onwards. The plan includes special services, extra ticket counters, additional staff and emergency arrangements across the division.
The railway has scheduled seven pairs of Puja special trains from Howrah, amounting to 174 trips, to maintain connectivity during the festive period. For local-train passengers, special MEMU and EMU services, along with additional stoppages, will be arranged from October 17 to October 21.
The division has also kept standby train rakes and coaches ready to respond to emergencies. The measures are intended to support passengers travelling to visit Durga Puja installations and manage the sharp increase in demand expected during the festival.
Ticketing arrangements at Howrah station will be expanded. Alongside the existing 30 counters, six additional counters will be opened. Across the division, 14 M-UTS assistants will support passengers, while 17 additional shifts will be deployed for unreserved ticketing.
The railway will also deploy 366 automatic ticket vending machine assistants and 52 special assistants across Howrah Division. Additional M-UTS counters will be placed within holding areas so that passengers can obtain tickets before moving towards the platforms, reducing pressure on regular queues.
Howrah Divisional Railway Manager Vishal Kapoor said the division had prepared a 12-day schedule focused on enabling passengers to travel safely. He added that further planning would be undertaken later for Lakshmi Puja and Kali Puja.
Fourteen stations across Howrah Division have been identified as high-footfall or sensitive locations. At Howrah station, platforms 1 to 24 cover an area of approximately 87,058 square metres, which has been arranged to accommodate up to 300,000 passengers at a time, according to the railway’s plan.
Railway Protection Force personnel and commercial staff will remain on duty around the clock to regulate crowds and help passengers board trains in an orderly manner. The arrangement places continuous on-ground staffing at the centre of the division’s crowd-control strategy during the busiest period.
The railway has also reviewed drinking-water supply, lifts, escalators, foot overbridges and CCTV systems at the station. Passenger information will be provided through regular announcements and video walls in Bengali, Hindi and English.
The measures announced for Howrah show the operational scale required to keep a major rail gateway functional during Durga Puja. The immediate focus will now be on implementing the 12-day schedule, managing passenger flows at the identified sensitive stations and ensuring that the additional ticketing and safety arrangements remain available through the festival rush.
