Bhubaneswar: The Railways has decided to run eight pairs of special trains from and through East Coast Railways (ECoR) to evacuate stranded passengers.
The ECoR willto open a few PRS counter to facilitate stranded passengers as per COVID19 guidelines, said ECoR sources. Moreover, ECoR will issue SOP for passengers supposed to board in Special Trains. This move is a major relief to passengers stranded in view of lockdown. A total number of nine trains from and through Odisha will run.
Indian Railways has instructed green lights phase for re-opening of reservation counters and Zonal Railways have been instructed to decide and notify opening of reservation counters as per local needs and conditions.
Indian Railways will be going to open reservation counters for booking of reserved tickets in a phased manner. Zonal Railways have instructed to decide and notify opening of reservation counters as per local needs and conditions. Counters for booking of rail journey tickets for reserved travel only at railway stations/ railway premises shall be opened from Saturday morning.
Principal Chief Commercial Managers of Zonal railway will decide the number of counters and their timings to be opened as per requirement and local conditions. This move is going to benefit all those persons who have been waiting to travel through trains for a long time but were unable to travel due to lock down. It may be recalled that Indian Railways has announced 200 new Time Tabled trains that would run from June 1, 2020.
Opening of booking centers will mark an important step in graded restoration of passenger railway services and making the task of ticket booking easy for all prospective travelers including migrants from all parts of India .
Zonal railways may adhere to standard social distancing guidelines and observe the hygiene protocols in view of spread of COVID-19 disease, Railway sources said.
In addition to the services of Shramik Special trains, Indian Railways has announced to run 200 new Time Tabled Trains from June 1, 2020. In view of the above, it has been decided to run 08 pairs of Special Trains from and through East Coast Railway jurisdiction w.e.f. 1st June, 2020.
Six pairs of Special trains will originate and three pairs will run through ECoR jurisdiction as per scheduled time to be announced shortly. Among the trains, 01020/01019 Bhubaneswar-Mumbai-Bhubaneswar Konark Express Special Train will run between Bhubaneswar and Mumbai, 02074/02073 Bhubaneswar-Howrah-Bhubaneswar Jan Shatabdi Express Special Train between Bhubaneswar and Howrah, 02801/02802 Puri-New Delhi-Puri Purushottam Express Special Train from Puri to New Delhi, 02201/02202 Sealdah-Puri-Sealdah tri-weekly Duranto Special from Puri to Sealdah (Kolkata), 02805/02806 Visakhapatnam-New Delhi-Visakhapatnam AP Express from Visakhapatnam to New Delhi and 02727/02728 Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad Godavari Express Special Train from Visakhapatnam to Hyderabad. The trains planned to run through ECoR jurisdiction are – 02703/02704 Howrah-Secunderabad-Howrah Falaknuma Express Special Train and 02245/02246 Howrah-Yesvantpur-Howrah Duranto Special. Apart from this, Howrah to Mumbai, Howrah to Ahmedabad and Howrah to Barbil Special trains will also run through Odisha. The routes and schedule of the above trains will be announced shortly.
East Coast Railway will issue Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the passengers who are supposed to board in the above Special Trains. The SOP is being prepared and may be issued within couple of days.
RAC and Waitlist Tickets can be generated in these trains but, after preparation of final passenger chart, wait list passengers cannot be allowed to board the train. Tatkal Train Tickets will not also be generated in these trains. Current booking will also be permitted through online, after chart preparation and two hours before departure of the trains.
No concessional train tickets will be allowed except four categories of Divyangjan and 11 categories of patient concessions.
These trains will be run with reserved berths with normal Mail/Express and Superfast train fare. 2nd class fare will be charged for the passengers travelling in General Second Class coaches with reserved berths.
No catering charges will be included in the train fare. Passengers may ask for food on payment basis from IRCTC with limited eatables and packaged drinking water. It would be advisable to carry own food during journey.
Apart from this, no blanket and linen will be provided in the train and passengers may take their own arrangements.
200 special trains announced day before on Wednesday. 15 pairs of AC special trains were running before from May 1. Tickets available for 230 trains now
Reservation counters open at Bhubaneswar. Three counters being operated from Friday. Tickets are being issued.
Reservation counters open from 0800 hrs this morning at all large stations. People have started coming to purchase tickets. At the counters, very few people seen. It is expected that more people will come to the counters during the day.
Both online and off line tickets from counter being started from Friday morning avoid non cash transaction mentioned in above as now PRS counters have been opened for public
