After a gap of about one and a half months, Indian Railways is finally set to resume its services in full swing. During the nationwide lockdown, only freight trains and parcel special trains carrying essential commodities like vegetables, fruits, dairy products, etc. were operating. Also, the railway authorities had transformed about 20,000 coaches into quarantine facilities for COVID-19 patients. Now that the lockdown is expected to finally come to an end, the Indian Railways is gradually beginning operations of the passenger trains as well.
How Is It Happening?
Railways will start taking new passenger train bookings from 11th May, 2020, 4 PM onwards. Also, the bookings will happen only online, on the IRCTC website. No ticket counters will be open for offline bookings. The trains will start running on 12th May, 2020. Initially, only 15 pairs of trains will operate, which makes up 30 return journeys. These will be special trains from New Delhi Railway Station to Howrah, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Patna, Mumbai Central, Ranchi, Agartala, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Dibrugarh, Bilaspur, Madgaon and Jammu Tawi. Also, operations of about 300 ‘Shramik special’ trains daily will begin for the stranded migrants.
Railways plans to gradually restart passenger train operations from 12th May, 2020, initially with 15 pairs of special trains connecting New Delhi with major stations across India. Booking in these trains will start at 4 pm on 11th May.https://t.co/DW9I1sPRx6
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 10, 2020
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What Else?
Only passengers with valid tickets will be able to enter the stations. It is compulsory for the travellers to wear face masks. Each of them will have to undergo a screening at departure. Only people with no symptoms will have permission to board the trains. The Indian Railways has informed that it might start more services on some new routes as well, depending on the number of coaches available.
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If you need to book a railway ticket for yourself or someone else, visit the IRCTC website at the soonest. Remember, the number of trains starting to operate now is limited. So, you need to secure your seats beforehand.