Indian Railways to restart select passenger trains from May 12, ticket booking only through IRCTC

New Delhi: The Indian Railways on Sunday (May 10, 2020) announced that it is planning to gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12, 2020.

The resumption will take place initially with 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys). These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi Station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi. 

Thereafter, Indian Railways shall start more special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centres and adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains every day as “Shramik Special” for stranded migrants. 

Booking for reservation in these trains will start at 4 pm on May 11 and will be available only on the IRCTC website (https://www.irctc.co.in/). 

Ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) shall be issued. 

No provision of tatkal and premium tatkal accommodation and no Current booking shall be allowed.

Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations.  

It will be mandatory for the passengers to wear face masks and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train. 

Further details including the train schedule will be issued separately in due course.