The Indian Railways on Tuesday announced that it would run 200 new trains with a timetable from June 1. The new trains would be in addition to the Shramik Special trains , whose numbers too would be increased.
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“Indian Railways is going to start 200 new time tabled trains from June 1, 2020. The routes and schedule of these trains will be intimated soon,” the national transporter said in a statement.
These would be non-AC trains, booking for which would be done only online. “No tickets will be sold at any railway station and prospective travellers should not come to the railway station to buy tickets,” the Railways said.
The Railways had earlier this month started running 15 pairs of special trains to and from New Delhi as part of efforts to restart passenger services after a gap of almost two months. For these trains, the advance booking period was kept at seven days.
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The Railways, which has till now run 1,600 Shramik Special trains ferrying about 21.5 lakh migrants in 19 days, added that it plans to double the number of these trains to bring more relief to migrants.
“Indian Railways appeals to the migrants not to panic. Efforts are being made to ensure that all of them are able to travel to their home States at the earliest. Efforts will be made such that they will be able to board trains from Railway Station Head on the main line which is close to their existing location,” it added.
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Railways said it had asked the State governments to identify and locate those migrants who were walking on roads to reach their home States and transport them to the nearest main line railway station after completing their registration formalities at the nearest district headquarters. The list of these travellers needed to be given to the railway authorities so that arrangements could be made for their further travel through Shramik Specials.
Railways Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted: “Within the next 2 days Indian Railways will double the number of Shramik Special Trains to 400 per day. All migrants are requested to stay where they are, Indian Railways will get them back home over the next few days.”
