Food on payment, no pre-paid meal booking for 15 trains that resume operation tomorrow

Ministry of Railways has encouraged passengers to carry their own food and drinking water.

As per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Railways, no catering charges shall be included in the ticket fare of 15 interstate passenger trains that will start running from May 12. 

Linen and blankets shall not be provided inside the train, while curtains have also been taken down from the rail coaches.(Sanjeev Kumar/Hindustan Times)

The ministry, in its release, stated that the provision for pre-paid meal booking and e-catering shall be disabled. However, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) shall make provision for limited eatables and packaged drinking water on payment, it said. Passengers have been encouraged to carry their own food and drinking water. 

“Dry, ready-to-eat food and bottled water shall be provided on demand, inside the trains on payment basis,” the circular read. 

Linen and blankets shall not be provided inside the train, curtains have also been taken down from all rail coaches. 

“Passengers are advised to carry their own linen for the travel. The temperature inside AC coaches shall be suitably regulated for this purpose,” the ministry said. 

According to the guidelines, passengers will be able to cancel their ticket online up to 24 hours prior to the scheduled departure of the train. “No cancellation is permitted less than 24 hrs before departure of train. Cancellation charge shall be 50% of fare,” it said.

The Central government on Sunday announced that 15 interstate passenger trains will commence operations from May 12 after the services were halted in March due to the enforcement of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

The trains will operate from New Delhi connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.

The process of ticket reservation for passengers via online booking service was scheduled to begin at 4pm today but was pushed to 6 pm as the IRCTC website crashed.

“Data pertaining to special trains is being fed in the IRCTC website. Train ticket bookings will be available in a short while. Please wait. Inconvenience is regretted,” the railways tweeted.