Beginning 1st June, the Indian railways will start operating 200 non- AC special passenger trains per day, in a step aimed at gradually restoring normal services, the railway ministry said on Tuesday.
Passengers can book tickets only on the IRCTC website or on its app. Ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) shall be issued. The online ticket booking process will commence soon and the schedule will also be put out soon, the railway ministry said in a statement.
To be clear, the national carrier will also continue to run Shramik special trains for migrant workers at the same time. Union railway minister Piyush Goyal Tuesday said the ministry of railways will run around 400 Shramik trains per day.
“Great relief for the workers, about 200 labourers special trains will be able to run on this day, and later these numbers will be increased on a large scale. Apart from this, Indian Railways will run 200 non-AC trains daily as per the time table from June 1, whose online booking will start soon,” he tweeted.
Goyal also requested the state governments to help the migrant workers register themselves with the nearest mainline station and give the list to the railways so that the railway workers can run special trains.
“Workers are requested to stay in their place, soon Indian Railways will take them to the destination,” he said.
According to the railway ministry, before the lockdown, the railways operated around 12,000 trains every day. So far the national carrier has ferried more than 21.5 lakh migrants to their home states in 19 days on 1600 Shramik Special trains.
