The Indian Railways on Sunday announced that it plans to gradually resume passenger train operations starting from 12 May, 2020. Initially the train services will begin with 15 pairs of trains or with 30 return journeys from Tuesday. The booking will resume in IRCTC website with effect from May 11 at 4 pm.
Ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) shall be issued. Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations. Regular fares will charged.
According to the Ministry of Railways, these trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi Station connecting 15 important cities of the country. These cities are Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Trivandrum, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.
Further details, including train schedule, will be issued separately in due course, said the statement from Railways.
Subsequently, Indian Railways shall start additional special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for Covid-19 care centres and adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains everyday as Shramik Special for stranded migrants.
It will be mandatory for the passengers to wear masks and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to enter the railway station and board the trains.
Passenger train operations have been shut since the lockdown began on March 25.
