Trains to remain suspended: Regular railway services including the suburban services will continue to remain suspended till further notice, announced the railways ministry on Tuesday, citing restrictions imposed by the government on the mass transport system in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. As per the government’s last order, suspension of services had been extended up to August 12.
The ministry also notified that the 230 special trains, which are running at present between select destinations, will continue to operate along with local trains in Mumbai, which are presently being run on a limited basis to ferry personnel employed with the essential services only on the requisition of state government.
The ministry added that the occupancy of special trains is being monitored on a regular basis and additional special trains may be run based on the requirement.
It may be noted that 230 Special Trains, which are running at present, will continue to operate. Local trains in Mumbai, which are presently being run on limited basis only on the requisition of state government, will also continue to run, it said.
The occupancy of special trains is being monitored on a regular basis and additional special trains may be run based on the requirement, the national carrier said.
However, all other regular trains and suburban trains run before the lockdown will remain suspended for the time being, it said.
All special trains 12 pairs running on the Rajdhani routes since May 12 and 100 pairs operating since June 1 will continue. The limited special suburban services which began recently in Mumbai to ferry essential services personnel identified by the local authorities will also continue to run, officials said.
Earlier, the national transporter had suspended all services till August 12.
In terms of Shramik Special train operations, the national transporter last months said a total of 4,165 Shramik Special trains were operated from 1 May to 9 July and ferried over 63 lakh people to their home states amid pandemic and that all existing demand for such trains were fully met till the mentioned date.
“The last Shramik Special train ran on July 9 and with that we presume that we have met the demand of the states regarding these trains. However, if there is more such demand, we will run these services again,¨ Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said in an online press conference earlier.
All regular train services were cancelled since 25 March when the lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic began. The IRCTC has suspended advance reservation for regular train services from 15 April 15.
The extension of the suspension comes at a time when active Covid-19 cases in India stand at 639,929, while 15,83,489 people have recovered, according to the Union Health Ministry. On Tuesday, a single day spike of 53,601 Covid-19 cases pushed India’s virus caseload to 22,68,675 with the death toll climbing to 45,257.
