The Central Railway on Saturday said it is restricting the sale of platform tickets at six stations—Mumbai CSMT, Dadar, Kurla LTT, Thane and Kalyan Panvel—for a few days to avoid extra crowding during the Holi festival season. “In view of extra crowds on platforms due to the upcoming Holi festival, sale of platform tickets has been restricted from March 8 to 16 to avoid excessive crowding and any untoward incident,” a senior CR official said.

At a high-level meeting on Friday headed by minister of railways Ashwini Vaishnaw on crowd control at stations, a number of key decisions were taken, including creation of permanent waiting areas outside stations at 60 stations across the country which periodically face heavy crowds. With the concept, crowd surge will be contained within the waiting area. Passengers will be allowed to go to platforms only when the trains arrive.