4L tickets booked in first 2.5 hrs for June 1 trains
Almost 4 lakh tickets were booked within 2.5 hours of opening the bookings for the 100 pairs of passenger trains that the Railways will operationalise on June 1, officials said Thursday.
By : migrator
Update: 2020-05-22 00:27 GMT
Chennai
On Wednesday, the Railways had issued a list of 100 pairs of trains that it will operate from June 1. The list included Durontos, Sampark Krantis, Jan Shatabdis and Poorva Express. “At 12:00 Hours, 73 trains were available in the system for booking and 1,49,025 tickets were booked having 2,90,510 passengers,” said a railway spokesperson. These trains will have both AC and non-AC classes and fully reserved coaches.
The Railways said these trains will be “special trains run on the pattern of regular trains”, covering tier 2 cities and also major state capitals like Mumbai and Kolkata. People have also started reverse bookings to come back to work.
Ticket counters to open at select stations from today
In a significant move, the Railways on Thursday allowed select reservation counters to open at stations from Friday, nearly two months after they were shut due to the coronavirus lockdown, with Railway Minister Piyush Goyal saying “we have to take India towards normalcy”. He also said that an announcement on resumption of more trains will be made soon.
In an order, the railway board said that such counters along with the common service centres can open from May 22 for booking reserved tickets and the zonal railways can identify stations on which the ticket counters can open. Goyal also said that booking of train tickets will resume at nearly 1.7 lakh common service centres across the country from Friday, making the service accessible to those in remote locations where the availability of computers and internet is negligible or absent. He said that the opening of ticket counters at stations will be graded as a protocol needed to be developed to ensure that there is no crowding there.
Static catering, vending units at railway stations
- The Railway Board (RB) has issued official consent to reopening static catering and vending units at railway stations, which would spare travellers from bringing their own water or food
- The board responded favourably to the request of zones which have been seeking guidelines/directions for reopening catering units at railway stations of late
- In a May 20 dated circular (copy available with DT Next), Philip Varghese, Director of Tourism and Catering, Railway Board has advised principal chief commercial managers of all zonal railways to take necessary actions for reopening all static catering and vending units, which also includes book stalls and even drug stores immediately
- The board has not, however, lifted sanctions on catering units which have facilities to allow consumers to eat food at their facilities
- Food plazas and refreshment rooms would only be allowed to serve cooked food as takeaway
Visit news.dtnext.in to explore our interactive epaper!
Download the DT Next app for more exciting features!
Click here for iOS
Click here for Android