Railways Earnings Hit Rs 200 Crore In 9 Prayagraj Stations During Mahakumbh

Prayagraj: During the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, a record 17,330 trains ran for 26 days, helping the Railways earn a whopping Rs 200 crore from all nine stations of Prayagraj. After the conclusion of Maha Kumbh 2025, North Central Railway has now started making preparations for the Ardh Kumbh to be held in 2031.

The authorities decided to run twice the number of trains in the 2031 Kumbh as compared to the 2025 Maha Kumbh. This time, three times more trains were operated in the Maha Kumbh as compared to the 2019 Kumbh.

Three times more trains ran for 26 days as compared to Mauni Amavasya of 2019. Himanshu Badoni, DRM of Prayagraj division, said that the railways had started preparations for Maha Kumbh 2025 in April 2022. It was decided that 1,3000 trains would be run in Maha Kumbh 2025. In January 2024 itself, this number reached close to 10,000. In Maha Kumbh, the railways operated 17,330 trains to transport lakhs of devotees to their destination. Three times more trains were run continuously for 26 days as compared to Kumbh 2019. Now more preparations will have to be made in Kumbh 2031.

ADRM Sanjay Singh said that in Mahakumbh 2025, the railways operated more than 1,000 long-distance trains for the first time. In the 2019 Kumbh, where 49 special trains were run on Mauni Amavasya, this time 157 trains were run.

"Earlier, we used to take the responsibility of taking the passengers home, but this time the railways took on dual responsibility. We also took the responsibility of crowd management. This time, there was no fair surcharge, yet the earnings crossed 200 crores," North Central Railway chief public relations officer Shashikant Tripathi said.

According to him, there was no fair surcharge on passengers in Mahakumbh. The basic facilities developed before the Mahakumbh helped a lot in crowd management.

Apart from this, UTS tickets were provided to more than 4 lakh devotees by the checking staff of the railways and this earned more than Rs 6 crore to the railways. During Mahakumbh 2025, the facility of digital payment was used in large numbers in unreserved tickets at four stations of Prayagraj Mela area, he said.

At Prayagraj Junction, Prayagraj Chheoki, Naini and Subedarganj, the percentage of digital payments increased from 7% to 12.5%. During the Kumbh Mela, 1,680 commercial employees provided continuous services to the devotees at various places.

Medical facilities to more than 3 lakh passengers

In Maha Kumbh 2025, several crore people travelled by railway. During this time, the health department of Indian Railways also made a significant contribution. The medical department of North Central Railway provided medical assistance to more than 3 lakh passengers. During this time, medical assistance was provided to the devotees through observation rooms and first aid centres set up at railway stations.

Only 394 critically ill passengers were sent to higher centres for further assistance. As many as 220 doctors and 170 paramedical staff were called and deployed from various zones of Indian Railways during six major bathing rituals.