UTS ticket booking for Kumbh Mela 2019 in advance: Indian Railways announces this benefit - check stations, dates

Indian Railways has been improving its ticketing infrastructure to reduce the queues at the ticket booking window. Recently, it launched a facility to allow passengers to book long-distance unreserved tickets through UTS app.

Now in view of the Kumbh Mela 2019, the railways has announced that it will be allowing pilgrims to book unreserved travel ticket in advance. The advanced ticket booking will be allowed only offline and not through the app.

The facility will be available for passengers at 11 stations of Prayagraj Area. These are - Allahabad Junction, Allahabad City, Naini, Subedarganj, Prayag, Prayag Ghat, Daraganj, Phaphamau, Jhunsi, Allahabad Chheoki, and Vindhyachal. 

"Though the Vindhyachal station falls in the Mirzapur area, it has been included in the list due to its vicinity to the pilgrimage. The advance ticket booking will start on January 11 and will be available till March 6," told Gaurav Krishna Bansal, CPRO, North Central Railways to ZeeBiz.com.

However, these tickets will be non-refundable. The railways witnesses a massive surge in the number of passengers during the Kumbh Mela. Bansal said that as many as 30 million people had visited last Kumbh and it is expected that around 90 million pilgrims will come to Prayag on Mauni Amavasya this time. Therefore, in order to reduce rush at the ticket booking windows, the railways has allowed advance booking of the unreserved ticket from January 11.

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The railways especially witnesses a surge in the number of passengers on the auspicious bathing days which are - Makar Sankranti, Paush Purnima, Mauni Amavasya, Vasant Panchami, Magh Purnima and Mahashivratri.