Title - Trains remain crowded till Sunday

Last hour rush at the Railway stations at Ranchi on Sunday who could not make it till Saturday was seen in a hurry to board the train for reaching their homes for Chhath Puja. The trains on Sunday witnessed heavy rush as devotees thronged on them to join their families on Kharna day.The Patna-bond Hatia-Patna Super train had a tough time to adjust the crowd on Sunday who was rushing to their homes. “This is the last train by which I could reach home at Patna on time so that I would be able to attend the Kharna in the evening,” said Ram Khelawan Ram, a Government employee from Chandi near Patna who boarded the train on Sunday.The passengers had to struggle hard to board the train due to heavy inflow of passengers as all of them wanted to reach home on time. “As it is a holiday on Monday I am going home to see my parents at Patna but it seems I will have to work hard to get into the train as you can see the crowd with so much of luggage with them,” said Saurabh Chandra, an engineering coaching student at Ranchi. The security however had already been beefed in and outside the trains in view of the expected rush in on the occasion of Chhath festival. “We have been deployed here to keep an eye on the passengers who are travelling so that any untoward incident could be avoided,” said a constable of RPF at Ranchi Railway Police Station.

Senior divisional commercial manager of East Central Railway’s Dhanbad division Dayanand said that adequate arrangement have been made by the railways. “Special RPF personnel are deployed at the stations to ensure the security of the passengers at stations and to monitor the crowd,” said Dayanand. “We have also deployed junior officials and supervisors to assist people travelling on this day,” added Dayanand.

Chhath Puja rush has always been a challenge for the railways as most of the devotees from the adjoining Bihar prefer to visit their native place to join their families for Chhath festival providing seat to everyone is an impossible at this time. People who have a valid reservation also find it tough to retain their seats due to overcrowding of the devotees.

Although no special trains were started for Chhath, the the waiting list of most of the important trains were confirmed on Sunday which were going towards Bihar. Some extra coaches have also been provided for some of the important trains.