Railways to run passenger trains with AC coaches, limited stops on 15 routes from May 12

The Ministry of Railways on Sunday announced to run 15 pairs of passenger trains with AC coaches and limited stops from May 12.

"All passenger trains will be run only with AC coaches and limited stops. The fare will be equivalent to the ticket fare that is charged for the Rajdh Trains," said the ministry.

These trains -- meant for 15 destinations across the country -- will run from New Delhi railway station. The online booking of tickets will start at 4 pm on May 11. Ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed.

The Railway Ministry has also clarified that existing Shramik Special trains will continue to run as per the current system on the request of the concerned state governments.

"Indian Railways has decided for the gradual resumption of passenger train services but existing Shramik special trains will continue to run as per current system on the request of the concerned state governments," the Ministry of Railways tweeted.

Indian Railways resumes passenger train operations nearly after two months when services were stopped due to the coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdown.

An official press release on Sunday said: "Indian Railways plans to gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12, initially with 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," added the release.

"Thereafter, Indian Railways shall 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," said the release.

As per the release, the booking for reservation for these trains will start at 4 pm on 11th May and will be available only on the IRCTC website (https://www.irctc.co.in/). Ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed and no counter tickets including platform tickets shall be issued.

Only the passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations.

"Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations. 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. Further details including train schedule will be issued separately in due course," added the press release issued by the PIB.

( With inputs from ANI )