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Indian Railways resumed its passenger services after a nearly two-month gap on Tuesday with eight air-conditioned trains transporting a total of 8,121 people heading to their destinations across the country, according to the ministry of railways.
While three of them set out for Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh), Dibrugarh (Assam) and Bengaluru (Karnataka) from Delhi, the others started their trips to the national capital from Howrah (West Bengal), Rajendra Nagar (Bihar), Central Mumbai (Maharashtra ), Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Bangalore.
The railroads also reported 169,039 passenger reservations in 24 hours, after the online ticket sale began at 6 p.m. Monday. Authorities accept reservations up to seven days in advance for the 15 pairs of special trains that the government has announced to resume passenger services.
“After an unprecedented temporary suspension of passenger train services to curb the spread of Covid-19, the Superfast New Delhi-Bilaspur Rajdhani train becomes the first train to resume operations,” said the Minister of Railways of the Union, Piyush Goyal, shortly after the train left for Bilaspur at 4pm.
These premium passenger trains, which have a fare structure similar to that of the Rajdhani trains, carried around 1,000 people each. They are running in addition to Shramik’s special services that transport migrant workers trapped in different parts of India due to the closure of their destinations.
The railways also said that a total of 575 Shramik Special trains operated with 680,000 migrants as of Tuesday since operations began on May 1. Of these, 463 trains have reached their destinations and 112 are in transit, according to the ministry.
Stations that resumed passenger services on Tuesday came to life momentarily, though the usual rush and crowd were replaced by people standing in line while wearing masks and maintaining social detachment. Services have been suspended since March 22.
According to federal guidelines, passengers were allowed to enter stations only if they had valid tickets, and they had to undergo a heat test and use hand sanitizer before boarding the trains. The guidelines asked passengers to arrive at stations at least 90 minutes before their trips to clear all formalities.
At least two states, Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, announced that they will quarantine passengers arriving on special trains.
“All passengers arriving by train or any other means in the Jammu and Kashmir UT (Union Territory) will undergo a 100% test using the RT PCR (Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction) method. .. all these passengers will be quarantined until the test results come out negative, “said the UT guidelines.
The Assam government also made a similar announcement. “… everyone who returns will have to quarantine the facility for nine to 14 days,” said state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. “… It will be impossible to evaluate thousands of passengers returning on trains, as it will take many days to obtain results.”
In accordance with the central guidelines, passengers must follow the health protocols established by the destination state / Union Territory upon arrival.
“It is up to the states to quarantine passengers upon arrival depending on their guidelines,” said an official with the rail ministry.
The Delhi government has issued guidelines saying passengers arriving in New Delhi will be able to return to their homes, or to their destinations, if they do not have symptoms of coronary virus disease. “People who are mildly symptomatic will be informed of their own / home quarantine protocols,” according to city-state guidelines.
Despite government guidelines that allow passengers to travel to stations in their vehicles if they have their tickets with them, there was confusion among some passengers.
On Tuesday, the government said that only those with confirmed tickets should proceed to the railway stations along with a driver. “The police / security agencies would not allow anyone else,” the railway ministry said.
Laveesh Chandan, 35, said: “I have to travel to Jammu (from Delhi) to get my family back and take a train to Delhi the next day (May 14). There is no clarity on whether interstate taxi movement will be allowed since I am in Faridabad (Haryana), where the border is sealed. ”
“The other concern is even if I arrange a private car through a friend to drop me off, and assuming we are allowed to cross the border with my ticket, how are you going to return without a pass?”
Passenger trains will connect New Delhi with Dibrugarh (Assam), Agartala (Tripura), Howrah (West Bengal), Patna (Bihar), Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Bhubaneswar (Odisha), Secunderabad (Telangana), Bangalore (Karnataka), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), Madgaon (Goa), Central Mumbai (Maharashtra), Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Jammu Tawi (Jammu and Kashmir).
When the passengers who managed to book their tickets breathed a sigh of relief, there was also concern about the operation of these trains.
Anand Kumar, a Darbhanga resident in Bihar, seemed relieved. “I have a business in Noida and I was stuck at my house after coming here on March 18,” said Kumar, who was one of the 1,060 passengers who boarded the train to Delhi from Rajendra Nagar in Patna. He traveled to the station from Darbhanga after obtaining approval from the district authorities.
But Kerala said it was not ideal to travel in air-conditioned coaches during the outbreak of an infectious disease, and asked the railway ministry to deploy non-air-conditioned compartments for long-distance travel.
“Health experts have warned that a closed environment is ideal for the virus to spread. We have asked the railways to deploy non-AC wagons, “said Prime Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
(With status inputs)
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