Indian Railways re-opens train ticket counters for reservation

New Delhi: Indian Railways is on Friday re-opening reservation counters and booking through the Common Service Centres (CSCs) and also ticket agents.

This development has come after Railways announced 200 more special trains from June 1. On Thursday, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that the department is also studying and developing a protocol to identify the stations so that bookings can resume at counters at those specific stations over the next couple of days.

The Railways Ministry had earlier said the tickets can be booked through the IRCTC website or its mobile app only. However, in an order on Thursday, the Railway board said that such counters along with the common service centres can open from May 22 for booking reserved tickets and the zonal railways can identify stations on which the ticket counters can open.

The Zonal Railways have been instructed to decide and notify the opening of reservation counters in a phased manner along with dissemination of information about their locations and timings as per local needs and conditions.

It may be noted that running of the Shramik special trains will continue to be handled by local state governments as per the existing protocols.

The opening of all these booking facilities once again will mark an important step in the graded restoration of passenger railway services and making the task of ticket booking easy for all prospective travellers from all parts of India in reserved trains. All must adhere to standard social distancing guidelines and observe the hygiene protocols in view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.