Indian Railways has announced gradual restart of passenger train services from tomorrow. Initially,15 pairs of trains will ply with passengers on board. These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi Station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central and Ahmedabad. Our correspondent reports that booking for reservation in these trains will start at 4 pm today and will be available only on the IRCTC website. Ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed and counter tickets will not be issued.

Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations. Passengers will have to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train. All passenger train services were suspended due to lockdown announced on March 25. After the resumption of these 15 services, railways will start more special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centres and adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains everyday as Shramik Special for stranded migrants.

Meanwhile, Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office, Dr Jitendra Singh has informed that the first passenger train from Delhi to Jammu will restart from 13th of this month instead of tomorrow, so that the authorities get enough time to make required arrangements at Jammu Railway Station..