A three-tier approach is being followed to available as many berths and seats as possible to meet the demand in view of Sankranti and pilgrimage to Sabarimalai in Kerala, SCR said in a release.
It said 110 special trains have already been announced for January and 67 Sabarimalai specials to/from Kerala will be operated this month.
In addition, 43 special trains would be run to take care of the Sankranti festival/holiday rush during the month. These include 36 special trains to/from twin cities (12 for Kakinada, 12 for Visakhapatnam,10 for Vijayawada and 2 for Gudur ) and 7 specials between Tirupati and Aurangabad.
Around 40,000 additional berths/seats have already been fed into the public reservation system (PRS) for this period, the release said.
The waiting list position in various classes of express trains on popular routes is being closely monitored by senior officials daily and extra coaches are being attached to trains with long waitlist.
Steps have been initiated to smoothly handle the rush of passengers at major stations in the festive period, it added.