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With the holiday season approaching Indian Railways is issuing new travel instructions for passengers. With Diwali Chhath Puja and Dhanteras just around the corner Indian Railways has already seen a rush to book train journeys. To facilitate faster and safer travel the railways are implementing new travel rules special offers and restrictions on ticket reservations and entry to platforms as well as various promotions for the holiday season.  The Northern Railway has stopped the sale of platform tickets at five stations from Oct 15 to Oct 28 2025 in view of heavy rush due to the upcoming festivals of Diwali and Chhat. These stations are New Delhi Old Delhi Hazrat Nizamuddin Anand Vihar and Ghaziabad. According to the news agency PTI Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Northern Railway said that the decision has been taken to prevent overcrowding at stations keeping in mind the increase in passengers.However persons accompanying senior citizens Divyangjans illiterate lady passengers may approach enquiry office for a platform ticket he added reported PTI. Several reservation centers in Delhi will be closed in the evening. The following centers will be closed in the evening shift (2 PM to 8 PM): Sarojini Nagar Kirti Nagar Shakur Basti Shahdara Ghaziabad Karkardooma Okhla Noida Tughlakabad Sabzi Mandi Adarsh Nagar Lajpat Nagar Rohini AIIMS and ITB/IRCA reservation centers. However these centers will be operating normally in the morning shift (8 AM to 2 PM). On Diwali some reservation centers will offer partial services while others will be shut down for the entire day and will not be able to provide reservations. According to the NavBharat Times Hindi report the centers that will be shut down for the entire day include Parliament House the Press Club of India the Railway Board the Supreme Court and the High Court. If you had planned to visit any of these center on Diwali to book a train ticket you will need to make an alternate plan to book tickets at a center that is open for reservations. With Diwali and Chhath Puja around the corner Indian Railways is poised to avoid another headache in the spirit of the festive rush. To deal with the rush of people special trains are going to be operated. Between October 15 and October 27 there will be special trains on 349 trips from NCR railway stations. Moreover if the rush at the stations increases railways also have provision for unreserved special trains to tackle the rush. Last year there were 3836 special trains while this year 4718 trips are scheduled until 30th November and the number is expected to rise in the coming days. To commemorate Diwali and Chhath Puja Air India and Air India Express have announced 166 flights to Patna that will be added to their operating schedule. These additional flights operate from Delhi Mumbai and Bengaluru and will be added along with existing operations to provide travelers to Patna services over Diwali and Chhath Puja. Air India will operate 114 additional flights while Air India Express will operate 52 additional flights. All additional flights on both airlines will operate their schedule from October 15 to November 3 2025. Ahead of Diwali and Chhath festivals the Western Railway (WR) has temporarily restricted the sale of platform tickets at its four major stations to avoid overcrowding officials said PTO reported. The restriction on the platform ticket sale will be in effect from October 15 to 31 at the Bandra Terminus in Mumbai and Vapi Udhna and Surat stations in Gujarat a WR release said on Monday. SpiceJet on Thursday said it has launched special festive flights to Patna from Ahmedabad Bengaluru and Hyderabad apart from enhancing frequencies from Delhi and Mumbai to Bihars capital. The airline has also increased connectivity to Darbhanga from Delhi and Mumbai it said in a release. Air India and Air India Express today announced the addition of 166 flights to and from Patna to meet the surging festive demand around Diwali and Chhath Puja Air India said in a release on Tuesday.