The Indian Railways is planning to gradually resume passenger train services from May 12, an official statement from the Ministry of Railways said.
Initially, the operations will resume for 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys).
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, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi, the release said.
The ministry added that it will start more special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centres and an adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains every day as “Shramik Special” for stranded migrants.
Bookings for reservation in these trains will start at 4 pm on May 11 and will be available only on the IRCTC website (https://www.irctc.co.in/). The ministry has made it clear that ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed and no counter tickets including platform tickets shall be issued.
"Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations," Railways said.
It will also be mandatory for the passengers to wear a face mask and undergo screening at departure. Only the asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train.
Railways has said that further details, including train schedules, will be issued separately later.
