New Delhi: The Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, on Thursday, informed that bookings for train tickets at Railway station counters will restart in the next 2-3 days, for which the ministry is developing a protocol. He said that railways is also going to announce resumption of services of some more trains soon.
The Railway Minister, in conversation with BJP Spokesperson, Sambit Patra, said, "Booking of train tickets will resume at around 1.7 lakh common service centres from tomorrow. Train ticket booking will also resume at the counters of different stations in the next 2-3 days. We are developing a protocol in this regard."
He also asserted to the point that it is the time to take India towards normalcy after weeks of nationwide lockdown, aiming to slow the spread of corona virus in the country.
"We are going to announce the resumption of more trains in the upcoming days. We have also permitted the operation of shops at railway stations. However, only takeaways will be allowed for the food items," Goyal said.
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Recently, Railways has also announced to run 200 non-ac timetabled trains on a daily basis, from June 1, for which online bookings have been started on the website of IRCTC.
"In the last two and half hours, over 4 lakh tickets have been booked for second class passenger trains which start from June 1. So many people want to go to Home. Also, there are so many people who want to return to work in cities which is a very good sign," the Union Minister told Sambit Patra.
Apart from these trains, Shramik Special Trains will continue to run all over the country. In the recent guidelines released by Ministry of Home Affairs, the running of these trains will be permitted by Railway Ministry, in coordination with MHA, while the consent of receiving states will not be needed.
Over this matter, Piyush Goyal alleged that opposition party- led states are not cooperating with the Ministry for Shramik Special Trains. He said, "Some states did not corporate with us to run Special trains, for sending back migrant workers to their homes. I think there are around 40 lakh people who want to return to West Bengal, but only 27 Special trains have entered the state so far."
