Coronvairus Lockdown 3.0: Indian Railways to resume services from May 12

Indian Railways on Sunday announced its plan gradual restarting of passenger train operations from May 12 initially with 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys).

These trains will be 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, the government said in a statement.

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These trains are special trains and comprise only AC coaches. The trains will have limited stoppages in-between stations, said railways spokesperson Rajesh Dutt Bajpai, in a statement.

Tickets will be issued only through online only and IRCTC website (https://www.irctc.co.in/) will start booking of tickets from 4 pm onwards on May 11. Tickets will not be issued through ticket booking counters.

Following this set of special trains, railways will start more special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centres and an adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains every day as “Shramik Special” for stranded migrants, said a statement from railways.

"Ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) shall be issued. Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations," the statement said.

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However, passengers have to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure. Only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train, the statement said.

The railways suspended passengers and sub-urban railways services on March 23. It halted operation of over 13 500 trains across the country to fight against COVID-19 pandemic. The railways also stopped the booking of tickets.

However, it only operating only freight trains transporting essential commodities were operating. From May 1 onwards Shramik special trains are being operated to ferry stranded people.