Railway to resume select passenger train services from May 12

Photo by OMPRAKASH PRASAD

The Indian Railways will resume passenger train services from May 12, initially with 15 pairs of trains, the railway officials said, reports PTI. These special services will be from New Delhi station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.

After resuming 15 services, railways will gradually start more special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centers and adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains everyday as Shramik Special for stranded migrants.

Booking for reservation in these trains will start at 4 p.m. on May 11 and will be available only on the IRCTC website (https://www.irctc.co.in/).

Ticket booking counters at railway stations will remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) will be issued, it said.

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. Report said.

All passenger train services were suspended due to a lockdown announced on March 25.