New Delhi: Indian Railways has announced plans to run more than 12,000 special trains during the upcoming Diwali and Chhath festivals to ease passenger congestion, with additional discounts and new services also on offer.
Speaking at Rail Bhavan, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the decision followed discussions with Bihar’s deputy chief minister, Samrat Chaudhary, Union minister Lallan Singh, MP Sanjay Kumar Jha and MP Dr Sanjay Jaiswal. “We have ensured arrangements for both onward and return journeys, so passengers can travel with convenience,” he said.
The minister confirmed that passengers travelling between October 13 and 26 will benefit from a 20% discount on return journeys taken between November 17 and December 1. “This is an experiment for the festival season which will benefit lakhs of passengers,” he added.
Among the new services, four Amrit Bharat Express trains will begin operating on routes including Gaya to Delhi, Saharsa to Amritsar, Chhapra to Delhi and Muzaffarpur to Hyderabad. A new circuit train will also link key Buddhist pilgrimage sites across Bihar, covering Vaishali, Hajipur, Sonpur, Patna, Rajgir, Gaya and Koderma.
Further infrastructure upgrades include making the Buxar to Lakhisarai section four-lined, a ring railway around Patna, new connectivity between Sultanganj and Deoghar, and a new Patna–Ayodhya train. Work on new road overbridges and a washing pit at Laukha Bazar has also been approved.
Deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary, Lallan Singh, Sanjay Jaiswal and Sanjay Kumar Jha expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sanctioning the projects and expanding services such as Amrit Bharat and Vande Bharat in Bihar.
