Ahmedabad’s Kalupur and Sabarmati railway stations have created dedicated holding areas for passengers travelling home during the Diwali and Chhath festival season, as railway authorities prepare for a surge on trains heading towards Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The facilities are intended to regulate queues before passengers enter platforms and reduce crowding during boarding.
The holding areas will provide lighting, fans, drinking water and separate toilet facilities, according to a report by Gujarat Samachar – Ahmedabad. Passengers will be seated in an organised manner before the arrival of their trains and will then be taken towards the platform in queues for boarding.
The arrangement comes as large numbers of passengers typically travel from Ahmedabad to their hometowns during the festival period. The report said passenger numbers could increase further towards the weekend after employees receive their monthly salaries, adding to pressure on stations and trains serving destinations in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Railway officials plan to coordinate the passenger movement from the holding areas to the platforms and into the coaches. The railway commercial department, Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police will jointly manage the process, including queue formation and the movement of passengers towards arriving trains.
Additional RPF and GRP personnel are being deployed at the stations during the festival period. RPF staff have been provided walkie-talkies to enable faster communication when passenger numbers rise or crowd-control intervention is required.
Closed-circuit television cameras installed at the stations will also be used to monitor crowd build-up. If passenger density increases suddenly at a particular location, personnel can be alerted through the surveillance system and moved to the area, the report said. The railway authorities’ plan is to control the sequence from waiting and queue formation to platform entry and train boarding.
The holding-area system is part of the temporary operational measures being implemented at Kalupur and Sabarmati during the Diwali and Chhath travel period. Railway, RPF and GRP teams are expected to remain involved in maintaining orderly passenger movement as the festival-related rush continues.
