COVID-19: East Central Railways (ECR) witnesses decline in passengers, earnings, says CPRO

The Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of East-Central Railways Rajesh Kumar has said that it has witnessed a decline in the number of passengers due to the coronavirus outbreak.

"It has affected travellers as well. There has been a decline of 13 percent in the number of passengers. The earnings have come down to 12.69 percent from March 1 to March 15," he told ANI on Tuesday.

Various zones of the Railways, including Central and South Central Railways, have to cancel the trains to check the spread of the virus. Recently, the Railways Minister Piyush Goyal reviewed the progress of the preparedness by Indian Railways.

A total of 147 positive cases of coronavirus have been reported in India so far, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Wednesday.

Globally, the virus has infected nearly 185,000 people and killed more than 7500 deaths, as per the latest data available on the World Health Organisation website.