Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw held a high-level meeting in Delhi to plan crowd control measures at railway stations across the country to prevent stampedes, news agency ANI reported on March 7.
The meeting followed a tragic stampede at New Delhi railway station on February 16 that claimed 18 lives. Dozens of people were also injured in the incident when a large number of passengers rushed to board trains for the Maha Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj.
In a bid to avoid such tragedies, Indian Railways plans to create permanent waiting areas outside 60 stations across the country that periodically experience heavy crowding situations, according to the ANI report.
Pilot projects for these waiting areas have started at New Delhi, Anand Vihar, Varanasi, Ayodhya, and Patna stations. The government aims to create these waiting areas to decongest the platforms so that passengers will only be allowed to go to the platforms when the train arrives at the designated platform.
New waiting areas on the cards
The railways will initiate complete access control in the 60 stations, and only passengers who have confirmed reservations will be given access to the platforms. All unauthorised entry points will be sealed, as per the report.
The new designs for the waiting area show a 12-metre-long and 6-metre-wide standard foot-over-bridge (FOB) that has been developed. According to the news report, the wide FOB with ramps effectively managed the crowd during Mahakumbh 2025. Indian Railways aims to install these standard-wide FOBs in all the stations.
Other essential aspects of crowd management were cameras, a war room, and key personnel appointed at each station. These aspects contributed significantly to crowd management during Mahakumbh 2025.
Many cameras are set to be installed in all the stations and nearby areas to monitor the crowd closely. Along with that, war rooms will also be developed where officers from all departments will work during heavy crowd situations, reported the news agency.
All major stations will have a senior officer as a station director who will have the authority to make spot decisions to manage the railway station. The station director will also control the sale of tickets analysing the station’s capacity and the number of trains available.
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