The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is all set to restart operation of Tejas Express trains on the Lucknow to New Delhi and Ahmedabad to Mumbai routes for catering to the growing passenger demand ahead of the upcoming festive season. Both the trains are expected to restart operations from October 17, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
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The announcement comes a week after railway board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav said that Indian Railways plans to run more than 200 trains during the festive season between 15 October and 30 November.
“On getting approval from the ministry of railways to again start the operation of the two popular corporate trains, IRCTC is making all-round preparations to ensure that the trains once started to match the expectation of the people in terms of levels of services and safety and health protocols amidst the ongoing pandemic. Every alternate seat will be kept vacant following the social distancing norms for the initial period,” an official statement said.
The operation of these two Tejas Express trains was suspended from March 19 due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. IRCTC said it has got approval from the Ministry of Railways to again start the operation of these two popular corporate trains. Bookings will open shortly.
All-round preparations are underway to ensure that the trains match expectations of people in terms of service levels besides safety and health protocols. Every alternate seat will be kept vacant initially following the social distancing norms. All passengers will be provided a COVID-19 protection kit which will contain a bottle of hand sanitizer, a face mask, a face shield, and a pair of gloves. They will go through thermal screening and hand sanitization process before entering a coach.
IRCTC said it has conducted an extensive training program to train its team of employees which has been told to follow standard operating procedures to ensure passenger safety.
Meanwhile, India saw a single-day rise of 78,524 COVID-19 cases taking the virus caseload to over 68 lakh, while the number of people who have recuperated surged to 58,27,704, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The national recovery stands at 85.25 percent. The total coronavirus cases mounted to 68,35,655, while the death toll climbed to 1,05,526 with 971 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. The total recoveries have surged to 58,27,704 while there are 9,02,425 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 13.20 percent of the total caseload, the data stated. The COVID-19 case fatality rate due to the coronavirus infection has dropped to 1.54 percent.
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