Ganesh Chaturthi 2023: Railways to run 312 special train services for devotees. Check details here

livemint.com:

Indian Railways has announced special train services for Ganapati devotees this year. The Central and the Western Railways combined will be running 312 special trains. Of these 312 trains, Central Railways will be running 257 trains while the Western Railways will be running 55 special trains.

These special trains are being launched by Railways in order to avoid the huge rush and accommodate commuters during the 10-day Ganpati festival in Mumbai and other Maharashtra cities. The press release stated that the Central Railway is set to transport more than 1.04 lakh reserved passengers as compared to approximately 90,000 passengers in 2022 during the Ganesh festival season. Moreover, it added that an estimated 1.50 lakh unreserved passengers through 257 Ganpati Special train services desiring to travel during this time.

With this, 18 more special services are being run this year as compared to last year and a total of 94 unreserved services running in 2023 as compared to 32 in 2022. The release further gave number of last year and said in 2022, the Central Railway operated 294 special trains during the Ganpati festival. “The Central Railway management expresses its gratitude to the passengers for their trust and support in choosing our services.

We remain committed to providing safe, comfortable, and convenient travel experiences to all our esteemed passengers," it said. Earlier in June, Central Railway had said that it would run 156 Ganpati Special trains in view of the Ganpati festival in September 2023, the bookings for which had opened on June 27. However, it is not known if the 156 Ganpati special are part of the current 257 special trains of the Central Railway.