Mumbai, Feb 16 (IANS): A day after the stampede at New Delhi Railway Station claimed 18 lives, Central Railway Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Swapnil Nila said on Sunday that additional Railway Protection Force (RPF) and commercial staff have been deployed at stations to facilitate passengers and contain the swelling crowd.

Talking to IANS, Nila shared various arrangements made by the Central Railway for facilitating Maha Kumbh devotees and clearing the extra rush of passengers.

Speaking about trains' availability, he asserted: "Central Railway has been running 42 special trains to clear extra rush of Maha Kumbh pilgrims. Besides, 40-50 trains are run for people who commute to their jobs daily. Twenty special trains that originate from other stations but cover many stations of the Central Railway."

For the convenience of passengers, 'May I help you booths' have been installed at various stations if they have any enquiries and additional stoppages were introduced on the Kumbh route to facilitate the pilgrims, he said.

"Addition deployment of RPF and commercial staff, including Ticket Collectors, head Ticket Collectors is being continuously made as per requirement. Wherever the crowd swells, they intervene to contain it," he said.

Nila said: "Earlier 34 trains were announced for the Maha Kumbh, but to cater to the huge rush, we increased the number of trains and introduced additional stoppages for the Kumbh devotees."

Besides, public announcement systems are continuously used to inform passengers about the arrival of their trains, he said.

He shared that the Central Railways has introduced additional ticket counters, and additional RPF and Commercial Railway staff have been deployed for crowd management.

The Central Railway CPRO said that in case, the crowd surges, more security personnel will be deployed to contain it.

For proper crowd management, Railway officials have been directed to ensure adequate time between the arrival of two trains on the same platform so that passengers deboarding from the vehicle can move out of the station.

"Special trains will be run on February 22-23. We will take note of the rush of passengers and take a decision about discontinuing platform ticket sales for a limited period accordingly," Nila said.