New Delhi: Railways is planning to introduce 200 special trains between October 15 and November 30 during the festive season, Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav said on Thursday.
While addressing a press conference, Yadav said, "We have conducted meetings with the General Managers of zones and instructed them to speak with local administration and review the status of COVID-19. They have been asked to give us a report after which we will decide how many trains can be introduced during the holiday season. Our estimate as of now is that we will run around 200 trains, but it is an estimate the number could be more."
He also mentioned that Railways has decided to take stock of passenger services on a daily basis depending on the needs of the State Governments and the status of the pandemic.
"As far as passenger trains are concerned, the situation now is that we will analyse the requirements of trains, the traffic patterns and corona status on a daily basis. Wherever there is a need, we will run trains," he further added.
Currently, Railways has suspended all regular passenger train services and started running 310 special trains during the COVID-19 induced lockdown, including 15 pairs of premium Rajdhani trains, 100 pairs of long-distance trains and 80 additional trains.
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For the first time in Indian history, Railways has started running clone trains. The Railway official informed that these trains are also running with high demand, which is around 60 per cent.
He said, "We have started the system of clone trains where every morning we analyse the data on trains through software and our efforts are to ensure that whatever there is long waitlisting, a clone train is run there."
As the passenger services were suspended during the lockdown, Indian Railways has earned Rs 9896.86 crores from freight loading which is also Rs 1180.57 crores higher compare to last year's earnings for the same period, which was of Rs 8716.29 crores. The total increase in freight revenue is 13.54 per cent.
In a statement released by Ministry of Railways, it has been stated, "On Mission mode, Indian Railways achieved a significant milestone of pulling freight traffic ahead. Indian Railways freight loading and freight revenue for the month of September 2020 surpasses last year's loading and revenue for the same month."
In the month of September, Indian Railways freight loading was 102.12 million tonnes, which is 13.59 million tonnes higher compared to last year's freight loading fir the same month of 88.53 million tonnes. The increase in freight loading is 15.35%.
