CHENNAI: In the past 20 days, about 9 crore passengers have travelled on trains operated by the Southern Railway, as well as on connecting services to various destinations within its jurisdiction operated by other zonal railways across India.
Addressing the press on Tuesday, Chennai Divisional Railway Manager Shailendra Singh said that a total of 435 trips of 111 Deepavali special trains are being operated to various destinations under the Southern Railway. Of these, 85 trains (275 trips) were notified by Southern Railway, while other zonal railways announced 26 trains (160 trips) as of October 21.
These special trains primarily served high-demand routes such as Chennai-Madurai-Tirunelveli-Kanniyakumari, Chennai-Kottayam, Chennai-Mangaluru, Chennai-Ramanathapuram, Kochuveli-Bengaluru, Kochuveli-Mumbai and Kochuveli-Delhi. Additional trains were also operated to Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Santragachi and Shalimar (West Bengal), Ambala cantonment (Haryana), Barauni and Dhanbad (Bihar), among others.
Singh added that the Chennai Railway Division alone operated 176 additional special trains, with extra halts at key stations to ensure smoother boarding and deboarding.