NEW DELHI — The Indian Railways are about to restart operations post COVID-19 lockdown in a phased manner from Tuesday, according to a statement released on Sunday. Also, train bookings would open from May 11 onwards, after 4 p.m.
Instead of opening up all the stations, the current situation only allows a limited number of the routes to be opened. Keeping that in mind, trains from Delhi to some other major stations have been given a green signal.
The total number of such operating routes is 15 namely: New Delhi station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.
Railways Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted confirmation: "Railways plans to gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12, 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 May 11".
People planning to travel on any of the above routes can make their train bookings. For now, the bookings can only be down via IRCTC website and not via the station counter.
Only passengers having a valid ticket would be allowed inside the station. Also, there are musts like one should be wearing a mask and personnel will be checked inside the station.
Anyone not following the guidelines would not be allowed to board the train and other actions might be taken against the person as well. A person’s safety and others safety is a necessity in current times.
Other special trains would also start to function after some time. Trains for stranded migrants in different places are scheduled. These trains, called Shramik Special, would be bringing stranded migrants back to their homes.
The current capacity would be around 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 Care Centers and another 300 trains would be allotted to the Shramik Special.
So far the Railways has run 366 Shramik trains since May 1, carrying around four lakh migrants back to their home states. These have been run with strict rules regarding people in each coach, something likely to be followed for restarting passenger trains as well.
Each Shramik train has 24 coaches — each with a capacity of 72 seats. However, only 54 people are allowed in each coach in order to maintain social distancing; the middle berth is not allotted. — Agencies
