In a major relief, the Indian Railways on Sunday announced that it is all set to partially resume passenger train services from May 12 onwards on 15 important routes in the country

In a major relief, the Indian Railways on Sunday announced that it is all set to partially resume passenger train services from May 12 onwards on 15 important routes in the country.

In a government notification, Indian Railways notified that passenger train service will begin with 15 pairs of special trains from May 12 and bookings for the same will open on Monday, May 11.

This development came as India’s coronavirus count stood at 62,939, including 19,358 deaths due to the virus and 2,109 recoveries so far.

No Covid-19 case has been reported in 10 states and Union territories in the last 24 hours and the recovery rate has increased to over 30 per cent, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday, asserting that India was moving fast on the path of success in the fight against the pandemic.

Railways to partially resume services from May 12

Indian Railways on Sunday announced that it is planning to gradually resume passenger train operations from May 12 onwards. Passenger train service will begin with 15 pairs of special trains that will connect the New Delhi Railway Station with 15 major cities across India, a government notification said.

These special trains will be run from New Delhi Station to Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi, the government notice stated.

Bookings for these trains will start at 4 pm on May 11, Piyush Goyal informed.

However, ticket booking counters at the railway stations will remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) will be issued.

It will be mandatory for the passengers to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train.