Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav on Sunday launched several major initiatives to increase the preparedness of Indian Railways for the Mahakumbh starting from Monday in Prayagraj. Its objective is to provide safe, uninterrupted and technologically advanced services to the lakhs of pilgrims attending this massive gathering over the next 45 days. According to a press statement issued by the Railway Board, these initiatives include 24-hour Kumbh ‘War Room’, CCTV cameras at all adjacent stations, multilingual communication system and additional ticket counters etc. Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, said that 10,000 regular trains, 3134 special trains will be operated during the Maha Kumbh period, which is 4.5 times more than the previous Kumbh. He informed that 1,869 short distance trains will be operated.