Train ticket bookings resume at 170,000 centres from Friday: Rail Min

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that booking of train tickets will resume at around 170,000 common service centers across the country from Friday.

Common service centres are physical facilities for delivering e-services of the government at rural and remote locations where the availability of computers and the internet is negligible or absent. The minister also said that bookings will also resume at counters at specific stations over the next two to three days.

"We are developing a protocol to identify the stations. We will also soon announce the resumption of more trains," Goyal said during a conversation with his party colleague and BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.

The Railway Minister also praised Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani for their cooperation with the railways in running the Shramik Special trains and criticised West Bengal and Jharkhand for their non-cooperation.

Migrants travel towards their native places in northeast, during the ongoing Covid-19 nationwide lockdown, at Rayanapadu near Vijayawada. Photo: PTI

Goyal also said within 2.5 hours of opening bookings for the 100 pairs of special trains, nearly 400,000 passengers have booked tickets. The trains will operate from June 1. People have also started reverse bookings to come back to work, he said.

The minister had earlier announced that "Railways has decided to further restore passenger train services from 1st June for transporting people across India. Taking strict precautionary measures, 200 more trains will commence. E-ticket booking for these trains will begin on 21st May at 10 am." 

The government has also said that only passengers with Confirmed tickets shall be allowed to enter the Railway station. Screening of passengers will be done before boarding and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to enter the train.

These will be fully reserved trains having both AC & Non AC classes., General (GS) coaches will also have reserved seat for sitting, however, there will be no unreserved coach on the train.

Meanwhile, other regular passenger services including all mail/express, passenger, and suburban services will remain suspended.