For Ratna Bhaduri, it turned out to be shortest ever time to fetch a train ticket. 

“Within one minute, I got hold the ticket from the counter in Rath Jatra rush, thanks to the initiative of the East Coast Railways(ECOR)”, said the 23 year old B.Tech student from Kolkotta.

A regular Rath Jatra enthusiast, Ratna pointed out to the newly constructed Special Ticket Counters to get rail tickets at Puri Railway Station, for such an fast mode. 

Earlier to get a ticket from the counter it was taking at least half an hour, where as waiting time for a passanger was within 1-2 minutes this time, said Ratna.

Keeping in view the Rath Jatra rush of devotees all out efforts were made to provide a hassle free and smooth rail journey for the passangers, said an official.

Majority of the passangers were seen in happy mood after the tiring trip to Lord Jagannath Shrine espicially on Suna Besh evening.

This time ECOR authorities never took any chance over the arrangments for the one of the largest turn out of the passangers.

And it proved the mettle of the ECOR authorities under the leadership of Sanjiv Garg, a pro-people minded top gun in Indian Railways.

"We ran 32 ticket counters keeping in view the huge rush for Lord Jagannath Gundicha Jatra”, said Sanjiv Garg, an alert Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Khurda Road of ECOR. 

And on Rath Jatra day, ECOR sold 55,000 plus tickets only here, said Mr.Garg with an earning of Rs.17.70 lakh this year as against 32000 plus in 2009 Rath Jatra.

On Suna Besh night ECOR sold 47488 tickets as against 31487 that of last year, revealed the DRM Mr.Garg.

ECOR ran 237 trains as compared to 213 last year along with 66 special trains to Puri from different parts of the State and the country for Rath Jatra, said Mr.Garg.

The Special Trains ran through the entire festival duration.

The festival is witnessed by more than two million devotees this year.

Elaborate arrangements, which was organized for smooth running of train traffic and convenience of passengers during the extreme rush turned out to be grand success, admit authorities in the State Administration.

While the efforts were made to provide tickets to passangers in shortest time Mr.Garg said special attention has been paid to keep the station clean and provide uninterrupted basic services like drinking water, lavatories and urinals. 

For the first time a special enclosure was erected for the devotees, which came to rescue of the tired and fatigued persons to take a night’s rest.

Hundreds of devotees enjoyed the facilities under special attention of Railway Protection Force (RPF) and General Railway Police(GRP), said Pradeep Kapur, IG Railways.

Entire railway station was under surveillance of Close Circuit Television (CCTV), which was being monitored 24X7, said Mr.Kapur.

Along with CCTV, sniffer dogs, bomb detection squad and metal detectors have been installed for security monitoring.

Passengers were happy to avail of Janata meals at Rs 10 per packet.

Information Stalls were erected at different points in the station to cater to the demand of the people, which came handy for the devotees, admit Mayadhar Sethi, a devotee from Jajpur.