Overview
- Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw approved the nationwide rollout, with zonal railways directed to finish construction before next year’s festival period.
- Northern Railway will build the most facilities with 12 sites, including New Delhi, Anand Vihar Terminal, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Varanasi, Ayodhya Dham and Haridwar.
- The plan covers major hubs such as Mumbai CSMT, LTT, Dadar, Howrah, Sealdah, Patna, Secunderabad, Chennai Central, Ahmedabad, Surat and Bengaluru.
- Each holding area will use a modular, locally adapted design with separate ticketed and non-ticketed zones, ample seating and toilets, help desks, medical booths, drinking water and train information displays.
- New Delhi’s Yatri Suvidha Kendra was completed in four months, accommodates about 7,000 passengers with roughly 150 toilets, and its success followed a fatal February 2025 stampede that prompted the policy shift.