Indian Railways is continuing its efforts for the evacuation of passengers stranded in the Uttrakhand hills due to floods. Union Minister of Railways Shri Mallikarjun Kharge has been reviewing the arrangements regularly with the Railway Board and giving directions for the best possible Railway arrangements. Northern Railway and its Muradabad Division have fully geared up for making appropriate arrangements (Uttarakhand falls mostly under Muradabad Railway Division of Northern Railway).   

Following are the Measures undertaken in this connection : 

• Special Trains have been running regularly since 20.06.2013. Two Specials ran on June 20^th, three Specials ran on June 21^st and one Special ran on 22^nd June. One Special Train from Haridwar will depart at 10:00 pm tonight (23/06/2013) and stop at Roorkee, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Hazarat Nizamunddin, Mathura, Sawai Madhopur, Kota, Ratlam, Godhra, Vadodara, Surat & Borivali enroute to Mumbai Central. 

• Such passengers who were stranded in the flood affected area of Uttarakhand are allowed to travel by the special trains from Haridwar and Dehradun free of charge. 

• Additional coaches have also been arranged which are being attached to the regular trains to accommodate the flood affected passengers to proceed for their destinations. 

• The officers are camping at Rishikesh, Dehradun & Haridwar stations and liaisoning/ coordinating with Authorities of State Govt. and ensuring proper dispersal of passengers and also monitoring availability of passenger conveniences at these stations. 

• Arrangement for revalidation of tickets of those passengers who were stranded in flood affected areas of Uttarakhand even expiry of validity of tickets. 

• Special arrangements have been made at these stations to refund the fare against the tickets of flood affected passengers. To refund the fare against such tickets at these stations Refund Rules have been relaxed so that affected passengers may get refund against their tickets or revalidate those tickets for undertaking their journey to their destination on the same ticket. 

• PRS (Computerized Passenger Reservation) Counters at Haridwar, Dehradun & Rishikesh have been made functional round the clock. Arrangements have also been made for opening of 10 extra counters at short notice. 

• Doctors and Paramedical staff have been deployed with adequate provisions to meet with any exigencies at these stations round the clock. 

• Elaborative arrangements for catering, medical assistance etc. have been made at Delhi Jn., New Delhi, Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway stations for those passengers who are being cleared from Rishikesh, Haridwar, Dehradun. General second class coaches are being earmarked for stranded passengers for onward journey.  Senior officers have been deployed at these stations that are managing dispersal of stranded passengers by convenient trains. 

• NGO’s have also joined hands with railway authorities at these stations and providing food, water bottles, etc. to the passengers. 

• Railway administration is ensuring that sufficient Empty Coaching Rakes are sent to Haridwar/Dehradun. 

• A Task Force has been set up at the level of Railway Board under  Chairman Railway Board, Shri Vinay Mittal to monitor the situation. 

• The following Senior officers have been deputed as Special officers in charge of four most crucial points: 

I. Dehradun-Sh. Sanjeev Garg, Chief Commercial Manager/Freight Marketing.

II. Rishikesh -Sh. D. K. Singh, Chief Commercial Manager/Project.

III. Haridwar -Sh. Hitendra Malhotra, Additional Divisional Railway Manager /Moradabad.

IV. New Delhi -Sh. Vivek Srivastava, Additional Divisional Railway Manager/Delhi. 

These Officers are maintaining liaison and co-ordination with the State Civil Authorities and ensuring management and dispersal of passengers by Train services, running of special trains and also ensuring setting up of passenger help booths at these locations to be manned round the clock.

• The following Helpline nos. have been installed:

I. Haridwar: 09760534054/09760534055

II. Dehradun: 01352-622131

III. Rishikesh:01352-434167