by: Navjeevan Express

Back on track: Railways issues ‘restoration plan’ to zones for resumption of services on April 15

NE NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, APRIL 4

Railways has begun preparing to resume all its services on April 15 after a 21-day suspension of its passenger trains in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Sources said all railway safety personnel, running staff, guards, TTE and other officials have been told to be ready to join their posts from April 15.

Trains, however, will begin operations only after a green signal from the government which had formed a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the issue.

Meanwhile, the railways has issued a “restoration plan” to all its railway zones with a schedule of trains to be run, their frequency and the availability of rakes.

All 17 zones have been sent a missive to be prepared to run their respective services, the source said.

Around 80 per cent trains are expected to run as per schedule on April 15 which include Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto trains. Local trains too are likely to begin operations.

Sources say the railways is likely to also conduct thermal screening on all passengers and follow all protocols as advised by the government.

Senior officials, however, said no fresh orders have been issued and since cancellations were only upto April 14 “no fresh orders required for starting with effect from April 15.”

Sources said a concrete action plan will be sent to the zones later this week.

In an unprecedented move, the railways had suspended the services of 13,523 trains for 21 days after the lockdown was announced by the PM on March 24.

Its freight trains, however, continued to run during this period.

Western Railway to run special train for parcels between Ahmedabad and Chennai

Western Railway will run one more pair of parcel special trains between Kankaria in Ahmedabad and MGR Chennai Central, carrying essential commodities.

Earlier, three timetabled parcel express trains planned by Western Railway departed on March 31 from Kankaria to Sankrail goods terminal in West Bengal; on April 1 from Bandra Terminus to Ludhiana and, on Thursday, from Karambeli in Gujarat to Changsari in Assam.

All efforts are being made by Western Railway to ensure the regular supply of essential commodities across all parts of the country through its freight trains.

To mitigate the difficulties to a certain extent, one more parcel special rake has been planned to run between Kankaria and Chennai Central. This train will run on April 5 as Train No 00907 Kankaria-Chennai Central and depart from Kankaria at 20.00 hrs to reach Chennai Central at noon on April 7.

Similarly, in the return direction, Train No 00908 will leave Chennai Central on April 7 at 22.00 hrs to reach Kankaria at 12.50 hrs on April 9. The train will halt at Anand, Vadodara, Surat, Nandurbar, Bhusaval, Akola, Badnera, Wardha, Chandrapur, Balharshah, Warangal, Vijaywada Jn, Nellore and Gudur Junction, says a Western Railway press release.

With the addition of the train between Kankaria and Chennai Central, there will be a total of 18 trips between March 31 and April 15. The parcel express trains carry commodities such as milk product, edible oil, spices, groceries and biscuits and dry grass, the release said.