Indian Railways cancels 84 trains due to low occupancy over COVID-19 scare

Indian Railways on Thursday decided to cancel 84 pair trains from March 20 to till March 30 due to low occupancy following COVID-19 scare.

With this fresh cancellation, the number of train cancelled due to poor occupancy for the past three days will gone up to 155, said railway officials. Railways has already cancelled 71 trains including some passenger trains.

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Cancellation of railway tickets went up by 60 percent daily for the past few days. Cancellation is happening in all zones.

No cancellation fee will be taken for these trains and 100 percent amount would be refunded to passengers, said railways.

Railway Board chairman V K Yadav has requested passengers to avoid non-essential travel.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who chaired a review meeting with top railway officials on Tuesday, has directed all zonal heads to take all precautionary measures to check the spreading of coronavirus.