15 'special shramik rails' to connect New Delhi to 15 imp cities, confirms RailMin
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New Delhi, May 11: Bringing a major relief, the Railways Ministry announced that it is going to gradually restart selective passenger trains services from 12 May. The operations will initially start with 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys) and these trains will run as special trains from New Delhi connecting 15 important cities of the country.
Railway Ministry's Executive Director, Media, Rajesh Dutt Bajpai in a statement said that it an initial phase and so only 15 trains, including their return journey, with limited stops have been resumed.
Indian Railways plans to gradually restart passenger train operations from 12th May, 2020, initially with 15 pairs of trains
— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) May 10, 2020
These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi Station connecting 15 important cities of the countryhttps://t.co/tOvEFT1C8Z pic.twitter.com/dvdxKaxshM
It also declared that tickets can only be booked online via the IRCTC website or through the Mobile App (https://www.irctc.co.in/). The online booking for the trains will resume from 4 pm on Monday. Booking tickets through agents of IRCTC or railways will not be accepted, ticket counters at railway stations will not be opened either.
These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi Station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.
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
Government sources said there were indications that this was a “trial” to get a sense of the demand for inter-state movement and assess its compatibility with the outbreak containment strategy. The situation may be re-evaluated in about a week or 10 days, they said.
The trains scheduled to start this week will be air-conditioned, the fare will be that of what is charged in an equivalent Rajdhani express, a railway ministry spokesperson said. Officials also said that, unlike Shramik Specials, in which only 54 passengers were allowed instead of the regular 72, these trains will run on full capacity, but no concession in fare is likely to be allowed.
However, only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter railway stations. It will be mandatory for passengers to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the trains.
However, passenger rail services were shut for about 50 days since March 21 to contain the spread of Covid-19.