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Indian Railways will resume passenger train operations beginning Tuesday, nearly two months after services stopped due to the national blockade imposed as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of Covid-19.
The railways opened reservations for passenger services on Monday with 15 daily trains connecting Delhi to Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and other major cities.
“Thereafter, Indian Railways will begin more special services on new routes,” the government said in a statement. The railway network, one of the largest in the world, transports more than 20 million people every day and is the lifeline for people living in far corners of the country.
The Railways Ministry said reservations were issued to more than 54,000 passengers, according to the ANI news agency. Reservations for 15 passenger trains began at 6 p.m. Monday, two hours less than scheduled opening hours.
All of the first three-tier AC tickets for the Howrah-New Delhi train were sold in the first 10 minutes and all seats were reserved in 20 minutes, the PTI news agency quoted the IRCTC as saying. The Howrah-New Delhi train is scheduled to begin its journey from Howrah at 5:05 pm on Tuesday.
All AC-1 and AC-3 tickets for the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi special trains were also sold at 6.30pm.
The restart of some train services was announced on Sunday night, when India’s coronavirus infections increased by 4,214, the highest to date, to 67,152.
India’s rail, road and air services were suspended in March to stop the Covid-19 infection that spread to the interior of the country, but the number of cases increased daily. But authorities say the spread of the disease was largely contained due to strict restrictions.
Deaths from Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, reached 2,206, the health ministry said Monday. A fifth of India’s cases come from the densely populated cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Pune, which are also important centers of economic activity.
In a meeting with the chief ministers on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the resumption of train services is needed to accelerate economic activity, but said that not all routes will be resumed and that only a limited number of trains will fold, according to ANI.
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