Despite the surge in Covid-19 cases, Indian Railways will continue to run train services as per demand, assured the Railway Board Chairman and CEO Suneet Sharma, at a conference here on Thursday.

He added that the Railways is in touch with the States and is running special trains to diverse destinations.

‘Comply with norms’

In the context of the surge in Covid-19 the country is witnessing, some States like Uttarakhand and Odisha are asking passengers to get tested before travelling. But, as of now, Railways is letting travellers use trains in compliance with other Covid-19 protocols.

“We will run services whenever there is a requirement. The concerned officials have been empowered,” said Sharma.

Sharma added that they are taking all possible precautions for the railway staff and many of the railway employees have been vaccinated to ensure safety.

When questioned about the possibility of a situation like last year, when there was a rush of migrant workers to trains, arising, the CRB and CEO also said that while there is usual summer rush, there is no data as of today to show any “exodus”.

Railways has enough line capacity right now on an average, with 70 per cent of services running.

“In the Mumbai area, in last ten days, we ran 168 trains with 901 trips carrying 12.23 lakh passengers (the occupancy was 90 per cent). In the next ten days; 177 trains are planned with 929 trips (11 extra trains) and the booking occupancy is 60 per cent. In some routes that are seeing higher demand, we are running special trains,” said another Railway Board official.

Also, Mumbai has stopped issuing platform tickets in certain areas to control crowd, another Railway official said later in the day.

Indian Railways’ passenger revenues during fiscal 2021 was ₹15,135 crore as per early estimates (against the revised estimate of ₹15,000 crore for last fiscal).

 

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