NEW DELHI: The Maha Kumbh 2025 came to a historic conclusion, as more than 630 million devotees participated in a sacred dip at the holy ‘Sangam,’ thus becoming the world’s largest human congregation. The Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) was instrumental in making train operations seamless, with smooth travel of millions of pilgrims reaching the grand event.
In order to deal with the unprecedented flow of passengers, the DFC joined hands with the Prayagraj Division of Indian Railways to organise train movement. All freight traffic of the East Central Railway and North Central Railway was routed to the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) successfully. This tactical move decongested railway routes that were oversaturated and facilitated free movement of Maha Kumbh Special trains while ensuring trouble-free travel for pilgrims from all over India and the world.
The smooth movement of freight trains was a key component of the operation. Commodities like steel, coal, fertilisers, and food grains were moved without any hitch so that the supply chain would not be affected despite the massive scale of the passenger movement. Freight train operations for Maha Kumbh 2025 created a record, much higher than the records set in any previous Kumbh. In 2013, a daily average of 72.62 freight trains ran, which rose to 78.21 in 2019. This year, from January 11 to February 26, 2025, during the peak ‘Snan’ season, EDFC processed a whopping 149.45 freight trains per day, more than double previous records. Apart from operating freight and passenger rail traffic, DFCCIL also hosted an exhibition camp at Prayagraj, which was visited by thousands of people.