Indian Railways Launches Diwali & Chhath Puja Spcl Trains This Festive Season: Check Routes & Booking Details

Millions of passengers are heading home for the upcoming festivals so to tackle the massive festive rush this year, Indian Railways has announced a record number of Diwali and Chhath Puja special trains across major routes in India.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw confirmed that Indian Railways will operate around 12,000 special trains between October 1 and November 15, 2025, covering both reserved and unreserved categories. These trains will run across all major zones, including Northern, Central, Eastern, Western, Southwestern, and Konkan Railways, ensuring wider connectivity during Diwali and Chhath Puja 2025.

The Railway Minister said that the main motive behind this is to ease passenger congestion during the peak festive season and ensure timely and comfortable journeys across India's most crowded routes, particularly between metros and Tier-2 cities.

Northern Railway Plans

The Northern Railway has announced 4,718 trips of 65 special trains between September 19 and November 30th to handle the Diwali and Chhath Puja rush.

To manage the surge, the zone has deployed additional platform staff and RPF personnel at major Delhi terminals. Special holding areas at New Delhi, Anand Vihar, and Old Delhi stations to manage large crowds.

Central and Western Railway Special Trains

The Central Railway has rolled out 30 Diwali special trains connecting Mumbai at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus with Goa, Danapur, Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, and other major destinations

Some key routes include:

• LTT-Madgaon Special (01003/01004) providing weekend services through October.
• LTT-Patna and LTT-Gorakhpur with multiple weekly trips during the festive period.

Meanwhile, the Western Railway will operate special trains from Bandra Terminus to Udaipur, Ayodhya, and Jaynagar, running from early October to mid-November 2025 to accommodate the heavy festive travel demand.

Eastern Railway and Bihar Region

In Bihar, the Eastern Railway and local divisions have announced six Diwali-Chhath Puja special trains starting from Bhagalpur.
Key services include:

09081 Udhna-Bhagalpur Unreserved Special from October 14-27
09082 Bhagalpur-Udhna Unreserved Special from October 15 to 28

These trains halt at 23 stations, including Ajgaivinath Dham, Jamalpur, and Abhaypur, to ensure wider access for Chhath Puja devotees across Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

South and Southwestern Routes

The South Western Railway will introduce special trains from October 18, including:

SSS Hubballi-Mangaluru Jn-Yesvantpur Express (07353/07354), covering key Karnataka towns such as Hassan, Sakleshpur, and Tumakuru.

Meanwhile, the Southern Railway will operate additional services like Bengaluru-Thoothukudi and Bengaluru-Kollam from October 16 to 23 to deal with heavy passenger traffic from Tamil Nadu and Kerala.