Railways would do due diligence before resuming providing bedrolls: Vaishnaw

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday informed Rajya Sabha that the railways would do due diligence before resuming providing bedrolls to passengers in trains.

Though the railways earlier planned to start providing bedrolls, it decided to defer the decision after cases of Omicron. The government would not take any decision in a hasty, the Minister said in reply to a starred question in the Rajya Sabha.

The minister also said mail and express trains are running on normal fair. He said the price of platform tickets has also been normalised.

Last month, the railways restored some of its services including serving hot cooked food in premium trains that it had suspended in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. However, a decision on restoring concessions and providing bedrolls is still pending.

Replying to another question, the Minister said as of March 31, 2021, a total of 810.31 hectares of railway land was under encroachment.

During 2018, 2019, 2020 and the current year up to November, a total of 5,290 joint drives were conducted by the engineering department assisted by the Railway Protection Force wherein a total of 10,832 encroachments have been removed from the railway area, he informed the House.

Check out latest videos from DH: