Railways advised passengers to carry food & linen as limited trains to start on Tuesday

May 11: The Indian Railways has announced that it will resume passenger trains between Delhi and 15 other cities. Day 1 will witness 8 special passenger trains running in different parts of the country after initial difficulties on online bookings. The trains will have only AC coaches, the fare will be equivalent to what is charged for a Rajdhani Express journey, bookings will be made online. The railway said passengers with confirmed tickets will only be allowed into the platform. “All passengers will have to clear medical screening before being allowed to board the train. Only asymptomatic passengers shall be permitted to travel.”

The special stations will run from New Delhi railway station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi. The tickets for Bengaluru-New Delhi AC superfast train were sold out in 30 minutes after the railways began online booking at 7.30 pm on Monday.

Passenger services on Indian Railways shall be partially restored w.e.f. from 12th May 2020 in a graded manner. 15 pairs of special trains shall be operated to 15 cities. Only online E-Ticketing will be done through IRCTC website. See attached list.https://t.co/HSfscqd7GQ pic.twitter.com/fUjBiTndDj

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) May 11, 2020

Meanwhile, the Railways on Monday issued an advisory for passengers  to carry their own food and linen and arrive at the city station at least 90 minutes before departure for health screening. IRCTC will make provision for limited eatables and packaged  water on payment basis. Passengers may carry fewer luggage as porter facility may not be available. Wearing masks during the journey will be mandatory. Other dos and don’ts will be mentioned in the tickets. Passengers must install Arogya Setu app to travel. Passengers travelling in these trains may not be given blankets and linen to reduce the chances of the spread of coronavirus. The rules also say once they arrive at their destination, they have to follow the health protocols of the state.

Increasingly, scientists, epidemiologists and policymakers in several parts of the world are coming around to a consensus that the coronavirus is here to stay, and nations will have to find ways to live with the pathogen. This means that the stay-at-home approach, emphasised during the past seven weeks in the country, must now give way to policies that provide room for people’s mobility — albeit cautiously, and taking care to obviate any escalation of the outbreak.