The Indian Railways is planning to run 200 special trains in the upcoming festive season from October 15 to November 30 for the convenience of the passengers. This was announced by Railway Board President and CEO VK Yadav on Thursday. Yadav said that in the festive season, Railways will run more than 200 festival special trains. The number of trains can be increased if there is more demand from passengers.
The railway has also been running 80 additional trains since September 12, which have been named clone trains. Yadav said, 'We have held a meeting with the General Managers of various zones and directed that they should consult the local administration and review the status of coronavirus infection. A report has been sought from them and based on this it will be decided how many special trains should be run during the festive season.'
Railways have decided to review the passenger amenities daily because of the needs of the state governments and the epidemic situation. Yadav said that as far as passenger trains are concerned, railways will review the need for trains, traffic, and the situation of COVID-19 daily. Railways will run trains wherever needed.
Regarding clone trains, Yadav said that occupancy is about 60 percent. These trains have been run on high demand routes. Railways try to run a clone train wherever there is a long waiting list for trains. Railways have also decided that wherever the cloned train is full, another clone train will be run on that route so that no passengers are on the waiting list.
He said that one or two clone trains would run on every busy route in the festive season. Railways have run only 40 clone trains. Apart from this, IRCTC has sought permission to start Tejas from 17 October. The country's first private train Tejas can also start running before the festive season i.e. Dussehra and Diwali.
