NEW DELHI, Sept 5: The Indian Railways has planned to start 40 new pairs of trains from September 12 in consultation with various state governments. The bookings for the new pair of trains will start from September 10 after the schedules are finalized.
The Railway Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav while announcing the decision said the 40 pairs of trains would be in addition to the 230 trains already in operation since the railway services were being gradually restored with unlock-one from June besides the special trains started during the lockdown.
“We will run trains whenever there is request from state governments for exams and other such purposes,” said Yadav. “We will monitor special trains; wherever there is demand for a train or waiting list is long, we will run a clone train.”
Days after the Centre announced the guidelines for Unlock 4, Indian Railways said it was planning to run more special trains and the state governments were being consulted on this. A senior Railway Ministry official said, “The Indian Railways is in consultation with the state governments.”
The Indian Railways had suspended passenger, mail and express train services from March 25 in the wake of the nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Railways started to operate the Shramik Special trains from May 1 to help migrant workers, students, pilgrims and tourists stranded across the country amid lockdown. It also began operations of 15 pairs of Special Air Conditioned trains from May 12 and 100 pairs of scheduled trains from June 1.
Last week, the Centre gave approval for the eventual resumption of metro services from September 7, and the return of up to 50 per cent of teaching and non-teaching staff in schools outside the containment zones from September 21.
(Manas Dasgupta)