The Indian Railways is set to operate 416 festival special trains from October 20 to November 30 to meet the demand during the festival season.
At present, the public transporter is operating 682 special trains and 20 cloned trains.
The 416 festival special trains will operate from October 20 to November 30 connecting large cities that include Kolkata, Patna, Varanasi, Lucknow, and others. The trains will cater to the growing demand during Durga Puja, Dussehra, Diwali, and Chhath Puja.
Ticket prices will have add-on ‘special charges’, taking the cost up by around 10-30 per cent compared to regular train tickets.
The zonal railways will decide the schedule on which festival special trains will be operated. The trains will run at a minimum speed of 55 kmph so that they can be classified as Superfast Express services, the Railway Board said in its communication to zonal railways.
"The zonal railways should make efforts to operate these trains with more AC-III coaches in good conditions," said the communication.
"The railway is in touch with state governments and monitoring the ticket booking pattern. Whichever the route and trains have more bookings in such route another express train, which is also called clone train, will be operated,"(sic) said an official in the railways.
In the first week of November, Indian Railways will review the situation and make a decision on operating more trains.
"The railway has not decided when it will normalise the train operation. It is assessing the situation on daily basis. Whenever there is a demand for trains, the railway will operate special trains,"(sic) Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav said earlier.
The Railways halted the operations of normal service on March 22 to check the spreading of Covid-19 pandemic.
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