A sea of Holi revellers tries to board the Bihar-bound Maurya Express in Dhanbad on Monday night. Asansol-Varanasi Passenger resembles a coop at the coal town station on Tuesday, while passengers jostle for space on Maurya Express at Ranchi station. (Gautam Dey and Hardeep Singh)

Revellers from Jharkhand hoping to play Holi with friends and family in Bihar know well that they need to get past a preliminary round — that of making a dash for a seat inside chock-a-block trains.

Crowd swelled by the minute on Tuesday at stations in the state capital and Dhanbad, even as the railways arranged a special train from Hyderabad to Darbhanga via Ranchi to ease the rush.

The special train, which was expected to arrive in the capital by 10.50pm, will return from Darbhanga on March 10.

“All the trains going to North Bihar are packed to capacity because of Holi, which is why we had a special rake. We will add coaches to trains in the next three to four days,” said Sunil Kumar, additional divisional railway manager, Ranchi.

On Tuesday, a coach was added to the Hatia-Gorakhpur Maurya Express, which along with four other trains, ply between Ranchi and destinations in north Bihar.

Shashi Shekhar Mishra, a resident of Harmu, said, “Getting tickets for trains to and from north Bihar is very difficult right now. Because of the rush, I had to travel in an unreserved compartment on the Jainagar-Ranchi Express from Darbhanga two days ago.”

Gaurav Luxury, the group which runs three Mercedes buses on the Ranchi-Patna route, has also stepped in with two special coaches since Sunday. “The route is witnessing a rush like never before, forcing us to run two additional buses,” Ravi Kant, area manager of Gaurav Luxury in Ranchi, said.

He added that they had also flagged off three buses from Jamshedpur — two to Siwan and one to Muzaffarpur via Ranchi — on Monday.

Seats on interstate buses headed from Ranchi to cities in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, too, have been booked weeks in advance.

“All buses are running packed. The trend will continue till March 11-12,” said Krishna Mohan Singh, president of Jharkhand Bus Owners Association.

The surge of passengers is no less in the coal capital, with no seats available for the next seven days on Bihar-bound trains crossing Dhanbad.

Senior divisional commercial manager of Dhanbad Dayanand revealed that the railways had added two sleeper coaches to the Ganga Damodar Express. A special train is also being run between Dhanbad and Sitamarhi, Bihar, on alternate days, between March 2 and March 14, except this Thursday.

As passengers elbowed their way into trains at Dhanbad station since Monday evening, many like Rahul Mishra failed to get on-board.

“I wanted to leave for home in Patna to celebrate Holi, but couldn’t get onto the Ganga Damodar Express due to the huge crowd. I later decided to hire a car and had to shell out Rs 3,000, which is more than 10 times the rail fare,” the Dhanbad-based chartered accountant told The Telegraph.

The Dhanbad division of East Central Railway has also stepped up security measures, alerting the quick response team of the Railway Protection Force at various stations.

A team of railway officials led by commercial inspector and commercial supervisor has also been deputed at Dhanbad station to keep an eye on touts at reservation counters.

Dayanand added, “The railway team will also oversee passenger amenities such as availability of drinking water, functioning of enquiry and ticket counters and scheduling of trains on various platforms.”

Senior commandant of the Dhanbad division Sashi Kumar said that a dog squad was also being deployed to check luggage on trains.