The Ministry of Railways restarted its passenger train operations from Tuesday, 12 May, with 30 return journeys to begin with. A detailed schedule was released by Rail Ministry on Monday for these “special trains”, with some running daily, and others triweekly, biweekly or weekly.
The bookings had opened at 4 pm on 11 May. However, the website was down for about two hours from 4 pm; Railways said the delay was due to the fact that ‘information pertaining to the special trains’ was being uploaded.
Users said a disclaimer pertaining to COVID-19 pops up on the site when you open it. The disclaimer reads, “During COVID-19, you are responsible for your own health.”
However, the Railways stated, “ticket booking counters at stations to remain closed; no counter tickets, including platform tickets, will be issued.”
“Mandatory to wear face cover, undergo screening at departure; only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed on trains,” Railways further added, reported news agency PTI.
These special trains will run from the New Delhi Station to Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.
All the trains will have air-conditioned coaches, and the fares will be similar to that of Rajdhani trains. Tatkal bookings and waitlists will not be available.
The trains from Delhi to Mumbai, Patna, Kolkata, Dibrugarh, Jammu Tawi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and Bhubaneswar, will be running daily. The services to Agartala and Secunderabad will run once a week, to Chennai, Madgaon, Ranchi, and Bilaspur twice a week, and to Thiruvananthapuram thrice a week. Passenger trains had been suspended when the nationwide coronavirus lockdown was imposed on 25 March.
The Railways has been running 366 ‘shramik’ trains since 1 May, ferrying four lakh migrants back to their respective home states.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
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