Over 80 trains have been temporarily cancelled across the country citing low occupancy amid outbreak of the COVID-19, even as the Ministry of Railways on Tuesday constituted a “COVID response” team for monitoring the preparedness to deal with the pandemic.
To regulate the crowd at the stations, the platform ticket price will also be temporarily hiked to ₹50 from ₹10, particularly at important stations that see huge visitor rush.
“Across Indian Railways, the cancellation percentage has gone up by about 80%,” a press statement from the East Coast Railway (ECoR) said, adding the zone itself has seen cancellation of more than one lakh tickets in the last six days, which is 67% higher than cancellation during the same period last year.
The statement said if required more trains could be cancelled.
Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal on Tuesday held a meeting to review the progress of the preparedness and the efforts to prevent the spread, a railways official said.
Following the meeting, it was decided that a COVID response team be constituted, comprising the Executive Directors from the Railway Board. It will have six members and will coordinate all preparedness activities. “They will monitor progress through an online dashboard and other forums, resolve issues of railway zones/PUs, issue advisories and media briefs and prepare position for review meetings at various forums,” an official added.
One nodal officer from each zone will serve as point of contact for all preparedness measures and will be in constant touch with the response team.
The South Central Railway will be cancelling 29 trains “due to poor patronisation ....” such as Mumbai LTT-Ajni, Mumbai CST-Nagpur and Chennai-Secunderabad, while the South Eastern Railway has cancelled nine trains, including Howarh-Mumbai Duranto Express.
The Central Railway has cancelled 23 trains including Mumbai-Pune Deccan Express, Mumbai-Nagpur Nandigram Express, Mumbai-Pune Pragati Express, CSMT-Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express and Bhusaval-Nagpur Express. Likewise Western Railways has cancelled ten trains, including Mumbai Central-Indore Duranto Express, Mumbai Central-Jaipur Duranto Express and Mumbai Central-New Delhi Duranto Express.
The number of trains cancelled in the ECoR and the Northern Railways stands at five.
