Booking of reserved train tickets never stopped except for lockdown period: Ministry of Railways

Defying certain media reports, the Ministry of Railways on Thursday clarified that reservation for journeys post April 14 was never stopped except for the lockdown period.

The Ministry of Railways issued a clarification stating, "Certain media reports have claimed that Railways has started reservation for post-lockdown period. It is clarified that booking of reserved train tickets never stopped except for the lockdown period i.e March 24 to April 14."

Since, advance reservation period for taking reserved ticket is 120 days, ticket bookings for April 15 and beyond were made open much prior to lockdown period.

In another development, to help the government in its effort to contain the spread of coronavirus, Indian Railways earlier said it would be prepared 20,000 coaches which can accommodate up to 3.2 lakh beds for isolation needs.

There has been an increase of 131 COVID-19 cases in the last 12 hours.

The total number of COVID-19 positive cases on Thursday rose to 1965 in India, including 1764 active cases, 151 cured/discharged/migrated people and 50 deaths, said Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.