(a) whether the Government has not formulated any concrete policy to deal with the problem of excessive crowd in trains during the festive seasons;
(b) if so, the reasons therefor; and
(c) the efforts made by the Government to reduce overcrowding in trains during the festive seasons?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)
(a) to (c) With a view to provide more accommodation to travelling passengers, Indian Railways, subject to operational feasibility, commercial viability and availability of resources, augments the load of existing services, which is an on-going process.
Indian Railways, as a matter of policy, have already decided that all the Mail/Express trains (except fully reserved trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, etc.) introduced after 2007-08, shall have at least 6 general class coaches in their standard composition as per feasibility. Besides, to cater to the travelling needs of General Class passengers, Indian Railways operates fully unreserved services like Jan Sadharan, Janseva, Jan Nayak Express and also operates Passenger trains and Intercity services for short distance travel. With this end in view, Indian Railways in the Railway Budget 2016-17, has announced to introduce the Antyodaya Express, a long-distance, fully unreserved, superfast train service, and also to add two to four Deen Dayalu coaches in some long distance trains for unreserved travel to enhance the carrying capacity for the unreserved class passengers. 4 pairs of Antyodaya trains have already been introduced so far.
Accordingly, 507 coaches including 150 General class coaches have been attached on permanent basis during the year 2017-18 up to February 2018, in existing trains.
Further, to clear extra rush of passengers during festive season, vacations, religious congregations (like Kumbh, Ardh Kumbh, Sabrimala, Urs, etc.), Melas, etc., Indian Railways to the extent feasible and justified, not only operates special trains but also augments the loads of existing trains to create extra accommodation for travelling passengers. With this end in view, Indian Railways operated 33,775 trips of special trains and utilized 91,958 coach trips, during the year 2017-18 (up to February 2018), which is also an on-going process on Indian Railways.
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