Thane tops Indian Railways' busiest stations list with 9.3 crore passengers
Kalyan and Howrah follow Thane in the Railways' list of the 100 stations with the most passengers, with Mumbai-area stations dominating the top 10.
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Indian Railways has released a list of the country's busiest stations. Several stations in and around Mumbai rank among the top places. Thane station recorded the heaviest crowds, with 9.3 crore passengers travelling through it.
The Railways has drawn up a list of the 100 stations with the highest passenger numbers. Thane is first with 9.3 crore passengers. Kalyan station is second with 8.3 crore passengers, while Howrah station is third with 6.1 crore.
Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Sealdah station each recorded 5.1 crore passengers. Panvel station is sixth, with its passenger count put at 4.5 crore. New Delhi station follows in seventh place with 3.9 crore passengers.
Dadar station, considered a special landmark for Mumbaikars, is also in the top 10, with 3.2 crore passengers. MGR Chennai Central is also in the top 10, with 3.5 crore passengers.
One thing stands out in the list: a large share of the busiest stations are in and around Mumbai. Thane, Kalyan, Mumbai CSMT, Panvel and Dadar are all among the first 10. This also reflects the large number of long-distance rail journeys originating from Mumbai.
Mumbai Central is 16th with about 2.2 crore passengers. The rest of the list includes Tirupati (1.37 crore), Kanpur Central (1.33 crore), Visakhapatnam (1.33 crore), Gorakhpur (1.30 crore), Thiruvananthapuram Central (1.27 crore), Bhubaneswar (1.22 crore), Anand Vihar Terminal (1.22 crore), Bhopal (1.20 crore), Varanasi (1.15 crore), Kozhikode (1.14 crore), Mathura Junction (1.03 crore), Coimbatore (1.02 crore), Nagpur (1.02 crore) and Bandra Junction (1.01 crore).
More than 24 lakh people travel on the rail network every day. Indian Railways is known as the rail service providing the safest travel. The network runs thousands of services through the day, and the number of passengers using stations also runs into lakhs. From Mumbai's suburban network to major routes such as Delhi-Howrah, the network also carries thousands of tonnes of freight every day.
