The Railways on Wednesday decided to resume services of its passenger trains and issued a list of 100 pairs of trains that it will operate from June 1. The bookings for the tickets will begin from May 21 at 10 am, the Railway Minister added.
Reportedly, seventeen Jan Shatabdi trains, five Durontos and other mail or express trains will resume its operation from various parts of India from June 1 in the second phase of graded resumption of passenger train operations in India.
Indian Railways has released the list of the 200 trains which will be operated from 1st June: Government of India pic.twitter.com/U1SmC4Bn8C
— ANI (@ANI) May 20, 2020
The decision to allow trains to resume operations comes after the Modi government announced the resumption of domestic flight services, in a phased manner.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce the decision. The Indian Railways will run 100 pairs of trains— to and fro. The bookings will open on Thursday, 21 May and booking can be made 30 days in advance. The tickets can only be booked from the IRCTC website.
Meanwhile, Indian Railways has also issued some guidelines to be followed during the resumption of railway services across the country. The Railways also ordered that the food stalls and canteens at stations are to be opened, bringing back some normalcy on railway stations.
Guidelines for Train Services beginning on 1st June 2020. Graded Restoration of Train services. Booking of all these trains will commence from 10 am on 21/05/20. (1/2)
— Central Railway (@Central_Railway) May 20, 2020
Detailed press release👇 pic.twitter.com/6DB6Ts7HMR
Reportedly, the five Durontos will run from Howrah to Yesvantpur, Sealdah to Puri, Shalimar to Patna, Ernakulam to Nizamuddin and Secunderabad to Nizamuddin. The trains will connect tier-two cities across India as well as metros and capital cities.
These trains will be fully reserved trains having both AC and Non-AC classes. The general coaches will also be reserved seats for sitting. Most importantly, there will be no unreserved coaches on the trains.
“Fare shall be as normal and for General (GS) coaches, being reserved, second seating(2S) fare shall be charged and seat will be provided to all the passengers,” Railways said.
Second phase of resumption of trains
Earlier, the Indian Railways had announced the gradual resumption of passenger train services in the country. In first phase, 15 pairs of trains, which will mean a total of 30 return journeys were opened for booking for general passengers, unlike the Shramik special trains which are booked by individual state governments to transport people stranded at various places due to the coronavirus Lockdown.
The Indian Railways had also started running special trains, named Shramik Special trains, on the exclusive request of state governments to enable migrant labours, pilgrims, students and others to reach their native places after remaining stranded at various places for over a month due to the lockdown.
