The initiative will cover high-footfall events including festivals, religious gatherings, melas, examinations, recruitment drives, political programmes, sporting events, cultural and social events, fairs, major public functions and tourist seasons, among others.
Named the “DS-12 E-Forecasting Register of RPF for High-Footfall Events” (EFRR), the digital system will “serve as the single digital repository for advance forecasting, monitoring, action taken and post-event assessment of high-footfall events”.
RPF headquarters, on September 17, 2026, ordered the concerned senior zonal security officials to operationalise the EFRR with immediate effect and ensure timely data entry of forthcoming high-footfall events.
Before the order, the Director General of the RPF had issued a directive detailing all aspects of the EFRR, including its purpose and implementation process.
The directive highlighted the need for an institutionalised advance forecasting mechanism and stated, “Experience has shown that the absence of timely information, inadequate assessment of likely passenger movement, fragmented dissemination of information and, in some cases, casual or inadequate appreciation of the seriousness of the situation at supervisory levels can adversely affect the preparedness of the field formations.”
“Recent crowd-related incidents have further underscored the necessity of shifting from a largely reactive approach to a systematic, advanced, intelligence-led and data-driven mechanism for forecasting and managing passenger surges,” it added.
The directive has made personnel of the RPF Special Wing (SIB) primarily responsible for making entries in the DS-12 Register. It states, “The concerned SIB unit shall ensure that every high footfall event falling within its jurisdiction and having the potential to result in a substantial or unusual passenger surge is entered in the Register as soon as sufficient and credible information becomes available.”
For fixed calendar events such as Holi, Diwali, Chhath, Christmas, major religious festivals and other recurring events whose dates are known in advance, the directive requires them to be highlighted in the system early “to facilitate meaningful planning, which may be even prior to 60 days in advance”.
For events such as melas, sporting events, examinations, recruitment examinations, political rallies/meetings, local festivals, fairs, cultural programmes and other events generally notified at shorter notice, the concerned SIB unit has been directed to make all efforts to obtain information at least three weeks in advance, wherever practicable.
The directive further states that if an event is announced or confirmed at shorter notice, the entry must be made immediately upon receipt of credible information.
Officials said the EFRR is envisaged as an important institutional mechanism for strengthening the RPF’s capacity to anticipate and manage high-footfall situations across Indian Railways. The system is intended to bring advance forecasting, monitoring, action taken and post-event assessment into a single digital repository, enabling preparations for passenger surges to begin with timely and credible information.
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