Don’t come to railway stations, only those permitted to travel would be allowed: Central Railway urges people after coronavirus lockdown extended till May 17

Mumbai: The Central Railway has appealed to people not to come to railway stations, saying only those passengers who have been permitted to travel by the state government would be allowed to board trains.

An appeal issued by the CPRO, Central Railway on Friday said, “I request all of you to please clarify to the public that the special trains are being planned for nominated people, identified and registered by state governments. No one under any circumstance should come to Railway station looking for trains.’’

“We will not issue any tickets to any individual or entertain any request from any group or individual. We will allow only those passengers to board whom state govt officials will bring to Railway Stations. The state government is the final authority to decide that who will travel in our trains,’’ the statement said.

It may be recalled that the Central Railway (CR) would be running two special Shramik Express trains from Nashik to Lucknow and Bhopal after the Union government said that stranded migrant labourers would be allowed to return to their home states.

In order to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday (May 1) extended the nationwide lockdown by another two weeks. As per the latest notification, the third phase of lockdown will be enforced until May 17.

The Home Ministry made the announcement as lockdown 2.0 was coming to end on May 3. 

The government took the decision after a comprehensive review, and in view of the lockdown measures having led to significant gains in the COVID-19 situation in the country. The Union Home Ministry issued an order under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, on Friday to further extend the lockdown for a further period of two weeks beyond May 4.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) also issued fresh guidelines, under which, all the domestic and international air travel, movement of trains, metro and inter-state buses for public transport, except those permitted by the MHA, will be prohibited.

For the past few days, Prime Minister Modi has been continuously holding meetings on this issue. After talking to the Chief Ministers on April 27, and then deliberating with senior ministers and taking the opinion of experts, he decided to extend the lockdown.

Notably, 733 districts in the country have been divided into Red, Orange, and Green Zones after witnessing the rising cases of coronavirus. Of these, 130 districts are in the Red Zone, 284 districts are in the Orange Zone, while 319 districts are in the Green Zone. 

Green Zone are those districts where no case has come in the last 21 days. 

Red Zone is where cases are constantly coming up. Red Zones are determined by how many active cases are in those areas, how many cases are doubling in how many days, how much testing is happening, and what is the feedback. 

The areas that are neither in the Green Zone nor in the Red Zone are placed in the Orange Zone.