As IndiGo airlines’ operational disruptions triggered a wave of cancellations and delays across the country, the Indian railways stepped up and added more trains to its schedule as reprieve for passengers impacted by the chaos in India’s key private carrier.
A total of 37 trains have been augmented with 116 additional coaches, operating over 114 augmented trips across the country, according to a government statement.
Here is how the Indian Railways has responded to the crisis:
- Southern Railway has enhanced its capacity by 18 trains, the highest number of augmentations. Additional Chair Car and Sleeper Class coaches have been deployed on high-demand routes. These augmentations will be implemented from 6 December 2025.
- With eight trains, Northern Railway has added 3AC and Chair Car coaches.
- Western Railway (WR) also increased the capacity to four high-demand trains by adding 3AC and 2AC coaches.
- East Central Railway (ECR) has strengthened the Rajendra Nagar–New Delhi (12309) service with additional 2AC coaches over five trips between 6–10 December 2025. This will provide enhanced capacity on this important Bihar–Delhi sector.
- East Coast Railway (ECOR) has augmented the Bhubaneswar–New Delhi services (Trains 20817/20811/20823) by adding 2AC coaches across five trips, improving connectivity between Odisha and the capital.
- Eastern Railway (ER) has implemented augmentations in three key trains, adding Sleeper Class coaches over six trips on 7–8 December 2025.
- Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has augmented two important trains with 3AC and Sleeper coaches over eight trips each from 6–13 December 2025, ensuring uninterrupted capacity for travellers in the Northeast.
What the officials said
News agency PTI quoted Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay, Chief Public Relations Officer, Northern Railway, saying that one 3AC coach each in 12425/26 Jammu Rajdhani express and 12424/23 Dibrugarh Rajdhani express have been increased in response to surge in passengers’ travel needs.
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“Similarly, one AC Chair Car coach each in Chandigarh 12045/46 Shatabdi express and 12030/29 Amritsar Shatabdi express have also been augmented,” Upadhyay said.
The railways is working to increase the number of all types of AC coaches in several premium trains running between New Delhi and Patna, Mumbai and New Delhi, and Ahmedabad and New Delhi among many others due to a sudden surge in the passengers’ demand.
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Railway officials said they are monitoring the situation and might run special fully air-conditioned trains on several routes connecting big and small cities so that passengers do not need to face inconvenience due to flight disruptions, in case the need arises.
No end to ordeal as cancellations continue
IndiGo cancellations continued for fourth day on Friday as over 1,000 flights were cancelled. The airlines said operations are expected to normalise in the next 10 days, as the country’s largest airline received flight duty norms relaxation from watchdog DGCA, which will probe the disruptions that have impacted thousands of passengers over the last few days.
The operations of IndiGo, which controls about two-thirds of the country’s domestic traffic and generally operates around 2,300 flights daily, failed to plan properly for the new flight duty norms that provide for increased rest periods and lesser night landings.
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