Railways has issued the list of 100 pairs of trains for which online booking will start at 10 AM on Thursday (today). Fare shall be as normally charged by Railways.

But for general (GS) coaches (unreserved) coaches, being reserved, second seating(2S),  fare shall be charged and seat will be provided to all the passengers, said an official release.

For these trains, the tickets can be booked 30 days in advance as ARP (advance reservation period) shall be maximum 30 days.

Online E-ticketing will be done through IRCTC website or through mobile app only. No tickets can be booked across the reservation counter on any Railway Station. Booking of tickets through ‘agents’, (both IRCTC Agents and Railway Agents) shall not be permitted.

Other regular passenger services including all mail/express, passenger and suburban services continue to remain cancelled until further advice. There will be no unreserved coach in the train. Only passengers with confirmed tickets shall be allowed to enter the Railway station.

Screening to be done before boarding and only asymptomatic passengers are allowed to enter the train. The advance reservation period shall be maximum 30 days.

Unlike the special AC trains, no tatkal and premium tatkal booking shall be permitted in these trains. First chart shall be prepared at least four hours before scheduled departure and second chart shall be prepared at least hours 2 hours (unlike present practice of 30 minutes) before scheduled departure. Only online current booking shall be permitted in between first and second chart preparation.

These special services shall be in addition to the existing Shramik special trains being run since May 1 and Special AC trains (30 trains) being run since 12th May 2020.

All passengers must download and use the Aarogya Setu application. Passengers are advised to travel light. As per MHA guidelines the movement of passenger(s) as well as the driver of the vehicle transporting the passenger(s) to and from the Railway Station shall be allowed on the basis of the confirmed e-ticket.

Guidelines and precautions

All passengers must wear face covers/masks at the entry and during travel. The passengers shall reach the station at-least 90 minutes in advance to facilitate thermal screening at the station. Only passengers who are found asymptomatic will be permitted to travel. On arrival at their destination, the travelling passengers will have to adhere to such health protocols as are prescribed by the destination state/UTs.

All quotas shall be permitted in these special trains as has been permitted in Regular trains. Limited number of reservation (PRS) counters shall be operated for this purpose. However, normal ticket booking cannot be done through these counters.

Concessions -- only four categories of Divyangjan (person with special abilities) concession and 11 categories of patient concessions are permitted in these special trains.

Cancellation Rules

  • The cancellation and refund rule for these trains will be same as what existed for normal trains --before the Railways stopped running trains due to national lockdown.
  • In addition following instructions already issued regarding refund of fare in case passenger is not found fit for travelling due to symptoms of novel-corona virus shall remain applicable. This means all passengers shall be compulsorily screened and only asymptomatic passengers shall be allowed to enter/board the train.
  • If during screening a passenger has very high temperature/symptoms of Covid-19 etc., he shall not be allowed to travel despite having confirmed tickets. In such case full refund shall be provided to passenger if the PNR has single passenger. Or on a party ticket, if one passenger is found unfit to travel and also all other passengers on the same PNR do not want to travel in that case full refund shall be granted for all passengers.
  • For all such cases of cancellation, TTE certificates as per extant practice shall be issued to the passenger at the entry/checking/screening point itself mentioning “Number of passengers not travelled due to symptoms of Covid 19 in one or more passengers”. After getting TTE certificates, online TDR shall be filed for refund of not travelled passengers, within 10 days from the date of journey and the original
  • The passenger has to sent the TTE certificate issued to IRCTC as per extant provision and full fare for the part passenger/full who have not travelled shall be refunded by IRCTC in the customer’s account. For the above purpose, CRIS and IRCTC shall make necessary changes for filing of TDR for non-travelling passengers due to covid-19 symptoms. One option ‘part/full passenger not allowed to travel by Railways due to very high temperature/covid-19 symptoms’ will be available.

Linen, blanket

No linen, blankets and curtains shall be provided inside the train. Passengers are advised to carry their own linen for the travel. The temperature inside AC coaches shall be suitably regulated for this purpose. Zonal Railways have been instructed to ensure that there are separate entry and exit gates at Railway stations to the extent feasible so that there is no face to face movement of passengers. Zonal railways will be guided by standard social distancing guidelines on stations and trains and observe the safety, security and hygiene protocols.

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