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The special trains to run between 15 State capitals as part of the Centre’s efforts to ease nationwide lockdown, will not have any waitlisted tickets.
The tickets will also be paperless to reduce chances of Covid-19 contamination through paper. The confirmed tickets will work as an e-pass for people travelling shorter distances to reach railway stations. People can book the tickets seven days in advance for these trains.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website — the Railways’ online booking counter — faced some glitches when it opened, delaying start of booking. That said, some segments got fully booked within minutes.
Click here for the full list of trains
No current bookings
The trains will be priced at Rajdhani Express levels and won’t attract high prices such as tatkal and premium tatkal tickets. There won’t be provision for current booking to prevent people from gathering at stations, said railway officials. Passengers have to reach the station at least one-and-a-half hours in advance to facilitate thermal screening.
Food cannot be booked in advance in these trains, said a release. People can buy dry and ready-to-eat food and packaged water in trains.
“Booking of reservation after cancellation, or waiting list ticket, and on-board booking by ticket checking staff shall not be permitted. Current booking, tatkal and premium tatkal booking shall not be permitted. No unreserved tickets (UTS) shall be permitted,” stated railways.
The Railways, which had closed online bookings on April 14, has not yet opened it for regular trains. It’s not clear if people have to register in advance to enter different States, as was the case for migrant workers travelling in non-AC trains.
The trains will have AC-1, AC-2 tier and AC 3-tier coaches, allowing for all seats to be used.
For all these AC trains, tickets shall be booked only online on IRCTC website or through its mobile app. Thus, booking of tickets through ‘agents’, both through IRCTC and Railway, shall not be allowed.
Online cancellation shall be permitted up to 24 hours before scheduled train departure. No cancellation is permitted less than 24 hrs before train departure. Cancellation charge shall be 50 per cent of fare.
The Railways plans to gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12, initially with 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys). These trains will halt at select stations.
Passengers will have to adhere to such health protocols as are prescribed by the destination State upon arrival, said the Home Ministry, in its set of protocols developed jointly with the Railways and Health Ministry.
Trains for migrants
Meanwhile, the Railways stated that it has already operated over 460 Shramik special trains — the non-AC trains for which States are required to book an entire train with 1,200 tickets.
The Railways said it will start more special services on new routes. It is reserving 1,200 coaches to operate up to 300 trains everyday as “Shramik Specials” for stranded migrants.
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