Western Railway handles 73 lakh passengers in 10 days of Diwali-Chhath rush

Western Railway handled a total of 73 lakh passengers across its network from November 1 to 10, 2026, during the Diwali and Chhath rush. Of these, about 2.70 lakh passengers came through Udhna railway station in Gujarat.

Vineet Abhishek, chief public relations officer of Western Railway, said in a press release issued on Friday that the number of passengers was about two lakh higher than in the same festival period last year. More than 250 trips of special trains were run from Udhna to handle the crowds. According to the railway, additional crowd-control arrangements were made and staff were deployed for the safe and orderly movement of passengers.

In the three days before Diwali, 111 trains passed through Udhna station. Of these, 27 were regular trains and 19 festival special trains originated from the station. On the night of November 7 and 8, the station handled more than 45,000 passengers within 15 hours. Railway officials kept a constant watch on the situation and ran additional special trains in view of the rising demand.

Western Railway is also developing Utran station as a satellite station for Surat. To ease the pressure on passengers at Surat and Udhna stations, special trains to various destinations are being run from Utran.

For the festival rush, passenger facilitation centres, meaning waiting areas for passengers, were set up at Bandra Terminus, Udhna, Surat, Utran, Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati stations. To cut the time taken to buy tickets, additional ticket counters, ATVM machines and mobile UTS staff were deployed round the clock. Ticket-checking staff were assigned to guide passengers and help them board trains in order. RPF, GRP and local police were deployed at the stations for law and order and passenger safety.

The passenger facilitation centre at Udhna opened on October 31. It spreads over more than 10,000 square metres, and Western Railway describes it as the largest passenger holding area in the country. It can hold more than 15,000 passengers at a time.

The centre has covered waiting areas. There is separate seating for senior citizens and passengers with disabilities. It has 10 separate ticket booking counters, and separate toilets for men, women and passengers with disabilities. There is also a room for breastfeeding mothers.

It provides RO drinking water and has 32 HVLS fans. It also has a public address system with 146 speakers, passenger information display boards and 55 AI-enabled CCTV cameras. There is a war room for continuous monitoring. Signboards, fire safety and emergency response arrangements are also in place.

Besides regular services, Western Railway ran more than 2,000 trips of holiday special trains in the festival season for Dussehra, Durga Puja, Navratri, Diwali and Chhath Puja. The railway says additional staff deployment, infrastructure improvements and real-time monitoring helped in handling the crowds and made the journey easier for people returning home for the holidays.