Two days after the stampede that killed at least 18 people, Northern Railway has decided to restrict the sale of platform tickets at the New Delhi station. But some passengers bought tickets to a nearby station to bypass the checks.

“If I don’t get a platform ticket, I will buy a ticket to Ghaziabad station. I can’t leave my nephew like this,” said a young man who had come to see off his teenage nephew going to his home in Odisha.

Expressing his inability to leave the boy without boarding him on the train, the man said: “After the stampede, I can’t leave the child alone here. It is better to travel a few kilometres for his safety.”

Another person who had come to drop his parents said he would do the same. Several visitors, however, decided not to enter the station without platform tickets. “I will try my luck. If I don’t get a platform ticket, I will return,” said Bablu, who had come to drop his brother travelling to Bihar.

Railway authorities have decided not to sell platform tickets between 4pm and 11pm for a week to control overcrowding at the New Delhi station because of the Mahakumbh rush.

Security has been heightened at the station to limit visitors. Railway officials, the GRP and the local police have been deployed at the station. “To prevent further untoward incidents we have put up barricades and increased patrolling in every corner. We have enhanced CCTV surveillance and are monitoring the visuals,” a police officer said.