Special passenger trains of Indian Railways start ferrying passengers to 14 destinations in various parts of country

Indian Railways has restarted special passenger train services today. Initially, 15 pairs of trains are being run with passengers onboard.

These trains
are being 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.

All these
special trains have only first, second and third  air condition classes. The fare structure for
the these trains is similar to the regular time tabled Rajdhani trains,
excluding catering charges. Reservation for these trains will be available only
on the IRCTC website as data regarding the special trains is being incorporated
in the system. Ticket booking counters at the Railway Stations will remain
closed and counter tickets will not be issued.

 No catering charges will be included in the
fare. Provision for pre-paid meal booking, e-catering is be disabled. However,
IRCTC shall make provision for limited eatables and packaged drinking water on
payment basis.

The Ministry
said, passengers are encouraged to carry their own food and drinking water.
Current booking, Tatkal and Premium Tatkal booking shall not be permitted.

Only
passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the Railway
Stations. Passengers will have to wear face cover and undergo screening at
departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train.

The
passengers will have to reach the station at least 90 minutes in advance to
facilitate thermal screening at the station. Online cancellation will be
permitted up to 24 hours before scheduled departure of train. No cancellation
permitted less than 24 hrs before departure of train. Cancellation charge shall
be 50 per cent of fare. The Ministry has advised all the passengers to download
and use the Aarogya Setu App.

No Linen,
blankets and curtains will  be provided
inside the train. Passengers are advised to carry their own linen for the
travel. As per MHA guidelines the movement of the passenger as well as the
driver of the vehicle transporting the passenger to and fro the Railway Station
will be allowed on the basis of the confirmed e-ticket.

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

After the
resumption of these 15 services, Railways will start more special services on
new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20 thousand coaches
for COVID-19 Care Centres and adequate number of coaches being reserved to
enable operation of up to 300 trains everyday as Shramik Special for stranded
migrants.