The Indian Railways on Saturday said it will run 40 pairs of new special trains from September 12. “The Railways will run 40 pairs of new special trains from September 12. The reservation for these will begin from September 10,” said Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav.
These trains are in addition to 230 trains already in operation, he added.
Yadav said the Railways will monitor all the trains currently in operation to determine which ones have long waiting lists.
“Wherever there is a demand for a particular train, wherever the waiting list is long, we will run a clone train ahead of the actual train, so that passengers can travel,” he said, adding the Railways will run trains whenever there is demand from states for exams or other similar purposes.
Days after the Center announced the guidelines for Unlock 4, Indian Railways said it was planning to run more special trains and the state governments are 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 Center 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.
The government in its new guidelines has said that the states will no longer be permitted to impose lock downs outside the containment zones without the Ministry of Home Affairs permission.
