In a bid to provide smooth and hassle free journey for the lakhs of pilgrims visiting Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala, Indian Railways have geared up its resources and would run 674 special trains for the current year Sabrimala pilgrimage season that began this week.Out of the total 674, Southern Railway would run 448 trains, while South Central 140, South Western 56 and Central Railway 28. For the first time, two special trains to help Ayyappa devotees coming from Eastern states would be run by North Eastern Frontier Railway, Division Railway Manger Rajiv Dutt Sharma told reporters here Friday.
The trains would start from destinations including Chennai, Egmore, Bangalore, Hubli, Hyderabad, Vijayawada,Dadar, Kurla Machilipattnam and Guruvayour.
In addition to the special trains, railway would also augment 660 sleeper coaches and 30 air conditioned coaches in the existing trains, he said. The special trains would terminate at Ernakulam, Kollam, Kochuveli, Nagercovil.
Reservation for seats in these trains had started. Most of trains would run during the peak time of pilgrim season between January 7 and January 14.
The Special Computerised Reservation system had also started functioning at the foothill of the shrine Pamba.
In addition to the regular Information Centres at Chengannur, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thiruvala, additional information counters would function with staff conversant in Telgu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi.
Besides, pre-paid autorickshaw and taxi stand, permission has been granted to Kerala State Road Transport Corporation to operate bus services from Chengannur, Kottayam and Ernakulam Junction, where majority of the pilgrims alight to proceed to Sabarimala.
Medical facilities have also been arranged in many of the important stations on the way to Kottayam. A special task force would be deployed to meet any eventuality during the peak rush after the 'Makaravilaku festival on January 14.
0 comments
Post a Comment