The Ministry of Railways has decided to detrain all passengers travelling in
a coach even if one or more passengers show symptoms of COVID-19 .Acting on reports that some passengers who reached their destinations tested positive, the Railway Board on Wednesday wrote to the General Managers of Zonal Railways to detrain passengers and empty the coach for cleaning. A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on disinfecting and sanitising the coach with soap and sodium hypochlorite solution was also issued.
“In the event of a passenger or passengers being found infected with COVID-19 or showing symptoms, the train would be stopped at the next major station and all travelling public in that particular coach or coaches would be detrained,” a senior Railway official told The Hindu .
There was no instruction on accommodating the detrained passengers in other coaches and there was no other option but to detain the train at the station till the cleaning work was over, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Once the coaches were sanitised, the passengers who were neither infected nor showing symptoms would be allowed back on board before the train resumed its journey, the official added.
In the case of air-conditioned coaches, the passengers would be provided fresh linen, the board said in its communication. The Railways, however, had earlier announced that no linen would be provided in the Rajdhani Express trains being operated between New Delhi and major cities across the country.
As per the SOP, railway maintenance staff at the terminating point would commence another round of intensive cleaning on the AC coaches.
