Railways to operate additional trains to meet demand of passengers

With many states announcing unlock, Indian Railways is gearing up to operate more trains to meet the passengers' demand.

The Railways has decided to operate around 100 additional trains this week, mostly long-distance mail and express, as the passengers booking in reserve class increased compared to last months.

Ticket booking has increased to more than 14 lakh per day compared to 5 lakh last month, said an official in the Railways.

The Railways asked the zonal officers to be in touch with the state governments so that it can operate more trains depending on the local requirement.

Most of the special trains, which will be operating from states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand to cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

"Those migrant workers, who have gone to their home states after the lockdown was announced, have started returning to cities in search of jobs. To facilitate the passengers, the Railways is operating more trains," said the official.

With many states relaxing the lockdown, the economic activities have started to pick up. The Railways also plan to operate general class sitting trains from the eastern states to states like Haryana and Punjab, where agricultural activities depend on migrant workers.

Last week, Railway Board chairman Suneet Sharma told the media that Railways is keen to normalise the services at the earliest and will increase the services gradually.

At present, Railways operate around 900 Special Mail Express trains every day on average. Before the second wave, Railways operated 1,500 trains daily.