The national carrier monitored passenger services every day. (Image: Reuters)
Indian Railways: More IRCTC Holiday Specials! Indian Railways is considering introducing up to 200 IRCTC special trains between October 15 and November 30, according to a PTI report cited by the Chairman of the Board of Railways, VK Yadav. This would help serve Indian Railways passengers who wish to travel during festivals without facing difficulties. The announcement comes at a time when all regular passenger trains have been on indefinite suspension since March 22 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Since May 12, the national carrier has been operating limited IRCTC special trains to facilitate the movement of those in need. At present, 15 pairs of Rajdhani special trains operate from Delhi to different parts of India, along with 100 pairs of long-distance trains. Additionally, Indian Railways also started operating 80 additional trains last month.
The report quoted Yadav as saying that meetings have been held with the zone general managers. General managers were asked to assess the pandemic situation in their respective areas after speaking with local authorities. The managers have also been instructed to send to the Indian railways their reports on the number of trains that could run in these areas during festivals. At this point, Yadav added, 200 trains is just an estimated number, and the actual trains to be introduced could be more.
He added that the national carrier was monitoring passenger services every day, based on the situation of the pandemic and the requirements of state governments. Yadav said Railways would run the trains as needed after assessing the situation. He also said that clone trains introduced by Indian Railways on high demand routes were experiencing an occupancy rate of around 60% today.
Explaining how the carrier handled these clone trains, Yadav said the team was analyzing the data from the trains every morning using software. Wherever they found a long waiting list of passengers, they ran a clone train on that route.
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