Over 45,000 bookings worth ₹16 crore so far for special trains

Over 80,000 passengers have booked tickets worth over ₹16 crore on the special trains so far, the Indian Railways said on Tuesday (May 12), hours before the first such train is scheduled to depart from the New Delhi station for Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.

The bookings for these special trains began at 6 pm on Monday. So far, 45,533 bookings (PNRs) worth ₹16.15 crore have been recorded for the special trains for the next seven days, the railways said, adding that around 82,317 passengers will travel against these bookings.

The railways issued guidelines on Monday for 15 special trains, which will be operated from Tuesday, asking the passengers to carry their own food and linen, and arrive at stations at least 90 minutes before departure for a health screening.

On Tuesday, the national transporter said installing the Aarogya Setu mobile application was mandatory for the passengers.

The railways will run eight trains on Tuesday – three from New Delhi terminating at Dibrugarh, Bengaluru and Bilaspur, and one each from Howrah, Rajendra Nagar (Patna), Bengaluru, Mumbai Central and Ahmedabad, which will terminate at Delhi. These special trains will only have air-conditioned coaches.

Since the trains will be operated amidst the ongoing nationwide lockdown, only the passengers with confirmed e-tickets will be allowed to enter the stations. The fares of these trains will be equivalent to that of the Rajdhani trains and passengers can book tickets up to seven days in advance.

However, no RAC, wait-list ticket or on-board booking by the ticket-checking staff will be permitted, the railways said. The national transporter had suspended its passenger services in view of the lockdown imposed to check the spread of coronavirus.