Inter-city and inter-State travel of Keralites in mail and express trains has come to a standstill by the railway’s decision to suspend all operations in the country till March 31 to contain the spread of SARS-CoV 2 virus.
The long distance commuters and the migrant workers will be the worst hit by the decision of the railways.
Cancellations up
The cancellation of train tickets has gone up by 80% on the railways network in the last few days.
The train operations, that were suspended to drum up support for the Sunday’s janata curfew, will resume only on April 1. Only goods trains will run from March 22 midnight till March 31 midnight.
However, trains that had already commenced their journey, prior to 4 a.m. on March 22, will continue their trip.
Uncertainty prevails over the outstation railway personnel such as coach attendants on these trains. They will have to be taken care of in the stations where the trains terminate till operations are resumed, a senior railway official said.
Hundreds stranded
Migrant labourers who had not been able to leave for their native places by Saturday and Keralites who had booked tickets to proceed to the cities and towns in the west, north and north-eastern had been stranded.
Hundreds who depend on inter-city trains to go to their workplaces had also been hit. “Taking leave is the only option before me as there is no alternate mode of transport. I had depended on the Jan Shatabdi to commute daily from the capital to Alappuzha,” says Preethy M. Kumar, District Programme Officer, Sarva Siksha Kerala, Alappuzha.
Vendors, catering staff, cleaning staff, those running stalls on railway premises, porters, taxi and autorickshaw drivers and staff working in the parking lot will be affected badly.
With the suspension of train operations, the booking and reservation offices will remain closed and entry to the railway stations will be out of bounds for citizens.
The railways will reduce the personnel in other offices from Monday in tune with the directive of the Centre to reduce the staff by 50%, sources said.
Station Masters and two Group D staff will have to be present in the stations round the clock due to goods train movement.
“The railways should ensure the movement of the goods trains as it is essential for a consumer State like Kerala,” says P. Krishnakumar, member, Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee.
Since Saturday midnight, 10 goods trains carrying crude oil, fertiliser, cement and foods grain had moved through Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram railway division.
The railways are looking into the possibility of exempting the Station Masters above 55 years from duty by introducing 12 hour shift, a railway official in the operations wing said.
