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Indian Railways sells tickets worth Rs 16 crore on day 2
The Indian Railways resumed passenger train operations from Tuesday, nearly two months after these services were stopped amid the nationwide lockdown imposed as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Indian Railways said on Tuesday more than 82,000 passengers booked reservations on the 30 special trains it has resumed on several routes across the country after almost two months.
Officials said 45,553 PNRs (passenger name records) were generated and the Indian Railways earned Rs 16,15,63,821 after tickets sale on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website. More than one passenger can travel on one PNR.
The Indian Railways resumed passenger train operations from Tuesday, nearly two months after these services were stopped amid the nationwide lockdown imposed as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of Covid-19.
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The first train to run after the gap of 51 days, the first such break in the 167-year history of the railways, will begin its journey from New Delhi for Bilaspur at 4pm on Tuesday.
The railways opened bookings for passenger services on Monday with 15 trains a day connecting Delhi to Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and other big cities.
Bookings for these 15 pair of passenger trains started from 6pm on Monday, two hours behind the scheduled opening time, due to technical issues but all AC-1 and AC-3 tickets for the Howrah-New Delhi train were sold within the first 10 minutes. All AC-1 and AC-3 tickets for the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi special trains were also sold by 6.30pm.
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The Indian Railways has issued several guidelines, health as well as those related to bookings and travelling, for effective contact tracing and follow social distancing both at stations and in trains.
Passengers will have to book general category tickets online — on the IRCTC website and on its app. A few reservation counters will be opened for HOR (high official requisition) holders, freedom fighters, and sitting and former lawmakers, among others.
The fare structure will be similar to that in the premium Rajdhani trains, and the special trains will have first, second and third AC classes. Tickets can be booked a maximum of seven days in advance, and only confirmed tickets can be bought online.
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RAC (Reservation against cancellation), waiting list tickets and tickets issued on board will not be allowed. Online cancellation will be permitted up to 24 hours before scheduled departure, and the cancellation charge shall be 50% of the fare.
The government has decided to resume passenger train services, prohibited since March 22, connecting New Delhi with Dibrugarh (Assam), Agartala (Tripura), Howrah (West Bengal), Patna (Bihar), Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Bhubaneswar (Odisha), Secunderabad (Telangana), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), Madgaon (Goa), Mumbai Central (Maharashtra), Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Jammu Tawi (Jammu and Kashmir).
Indian Railways operated nearly 14,000 passenger trains and ferried 23 million passengers a day before the lockdown was imposed on March 25 to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
