Patna: From increasing the stoppage time of major express trains at Sultanganj and Jasidih (Jharkhand) railway stations to provision of pure vegetarian food, the railways has taken various steps to make the annual pilgrimage of Lord Shiva devotees comfortable during the holy month of Shrawan.
Lakhs of Hindu pilgrims from across the state travel to Deoghar in neighbouring Jharkhand — which boasts of having one of the 12 ‘Jyotirlingas’ of Lord Shiva — after fetching the holy Ganga water from Sultanganj in the state.
According to Danapur senior divisional commercial manager (DCM) Abhinav Siddharth, the railways has provided five-minute stoppages of Rajdhani Express (12305/12306), Vande Bharat Express (223447/223448), Duronto Express (12273/12274), Janshatbadi Express (12023/12024), Poorva Express (12303/12304), Garib Rath (12359/12360) and Humsafar Express (12235/12236, 22459/22460) at Jasidih railway station, and of Gaya-Kamakhya Express (15619/15620) and Bengaluru-Bhagalpur Anga Express (12253/12254) at Sultanganj.
In addition, services of several special passenger trains for ‘kanwariyas (devotees)’ have been started from Patna and other places of the Danapur division to Jasidih and Deoghar.
Besides, the railways has arranged for vegetarian “janata meals”, which are prepared without garlic and onions, for the passengers at all major railway stations of the division. In order to tackle the rush at the major railway stations, including Patna Junction — where footfall has gone up to 5 lakh per day — the railways has issued several directives.
According to Danapur DRM Jayant Kumar Choudhary, Patna Junction and other crowded stations have been directed not to change the platforms for the passenger trains at the last moment to avoid any stampede-like situation.

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