According to some media reports, the Indian Railways has started bookings for passenger trains from April 15 onwards as the 21-day lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ends on April 14. However, the railway officials had some different clarifications regarding the reports.
Railways accepting bookings
According to some media reports, the senior government officials have said that the bookings will be accepted by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) from April 15, “naturally when the lockdown is till April 14”, but added that passenger train operations may not resume entirely.
Officials, however, clarified that the bookings were never been stopped in the first place. The time frame for advance reservation of tickets is 120 days, so the window for April 15th tickets was open before the lockdown period started, the Railways said in a tweet. For those with tickets for travel during the lockdown period, the refund has already been initiated, the Railways said.
Certain media reports have claimed that Railways has started reservation for post-lockdown period.
It is to clarify that reservation for journeys post 14th April was never stopped and is not related to any new announcement. pic.twitter.com/oJ7ZqxIx3q
— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) April 2, 2020
Goods Train
It is said that around 9,000 goods trains are operating despite the lockdown on passenger trains. According to the reports, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on April 1 ordered the railways to make supply services available on more routes for quick transportation of medicines, essential equipment, and foodstuff.
The Ministry has said that special parcel trains are operational on eight routes and they plan to add another 20 across zones, as per the report.
Indian Railways adopting all possible ways to transport essential commodities across the nation.
This includes Loading of Trucks with essential commodities on Roll on Roll off (Ro-Ro) service from Kolad, Maharashtra to Surathkal, Karnataka.#IndiaFightsCorona pic.twitter.com/hBP0DPU6Zz
— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) April 2, 2020
Earlier, the train services were suspended from March 22 till March 31, even before the lockdown was announced. However, the goods train services were exempted from the suspension.
