After the Centre rejected plans to run trains during lockdown 4.0 — between May 8 and May 31 — the Indian Railways has informed that the carrier will run more than 200 trains from June 1 for all passengers. At present, only 15 special trains have been running since May 12 on Rajdhani routes.

The Indian Railways will run 200 new time-tabled non-air conditioned trains. The 15 passenger trains that have been running since May 12 were air-conditioned.

Tickets for these trains can only be booked online, the ministry said, adding that bookings for such trains will begin soon.

“Trains will be non-AC. No tickets will be sold at any railway station and prospective travelers should not come to the railway station to buy tickets,” an official statement said.

All passenger train services across the country were suspended due to the imposition of a nationwide lockdown. Last week, the ministry said it plans to restart train operations in a graded manner after a gap of nearly two months. On 11 May, it launched 30 special AC trains to and from New Delhi.

More than 21.5 lakh migrants have been transported to their home states through Shramik special trains in 19 days. Till May 19, more than 1,600 trains to ferry migrants to their home states have been run.

The railways have also appealed the migrants to not panic, saying efforts were underway to ensure all of them reach their home states at the earliest.

Railways have also asked the state governments to identify and locate the migrants, who have been walking on roads with their belongings to reach their native places and ferry them to the nearest mainline railway station after registering them at the nearest district hqrs so that arrangements could be made for their further travel through Shramik trains.

Indian Railways also plans to double the number of Shramik trains to bring more relief to migrants stuck at various cities and their workplaces, an official statement said.