Booking period for 30 special trains increased

Indian Railways on Friday increased to 30 days the advance booking period of the 30 special trains that started on May 12.

These trains, which were running with an advance booking period of seven days till now, will operate along with 200 new time-tabled trains from June 1 and the Shramik special trains.

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For the 200 new trains, the Railways said nearly 6 lakh tickets were booked till Friday afternoon for over 12.54 lakh passengers. The online bookings for these trains opened on Thursday morning, and booking via counters and agents was allowed from Friday. “There shall be no Tatkal booking [in the 30 special trains] ...RAC/Waiting list tickets will be issued... However, waitlisted passengers will not be allowed to board these trains as per extant instructions.” Railways said.

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Booking of tickets will be permitted through computerised PRS counters in Post Offices and Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendra (YTSK) licensees among others. They can also be booked online through authorised agents of the Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation(IRCTC) and Common Service Centres, it added. “This will be implemented with effect from train booking date 24th May 2020 and for train starting date of 31st May 2020 onwards.”

A spokesperson said a total of 2317 Shramik special trains, ferrying more than 31 lakh migrants, had run till midnight of May 21.