Several trains cancelled due to low occupancy CONCESSIONAL TICKETS TO BE SUSPENDED

New Delhi, March 19: The railways on Thursday cancelled 84 trains, which will not operate between March 20 and March 31, taking the number of trains cancelled in view of low occupancy and coronavirus pandemic to 155, officials said.

Railway officials said the trains were identified on Wednesday night and the decision would be effective from March 20 to March 31. These include IRCTC operated two Tejas Express trains and one Humsafar Express train.

“All passengers having tickets in these 155 trains are being informed about it individually. No cancellation fee will be taken for these trains. Passengers will get 100 per cent refund,” an official said.

Tourist specials like Maharaja, Buddhist, Bharat Darshan, and state specials have already been cancelled.

The decision to cancel the Tejas service between Mumbai-Ahmedabad and New Delhi-Lucknow and the recently launched Humsafar service between Indore-Varanasi was taken on Wednesday night, officials said. The national transporters has also issued a set of guidelines for its catering staff, saying no employee having fever, cough, runny nose or difficulty in breathing “should be deployed in the business of food handling on the Indian Railways”. The

New Delhi, March 19: The Indian Railways decided on Thursday to suspend all concessional tickets except for patients, students and those in the Divyangjan category from the midnight of March 20 till further notice to discourage unnecessary travel in view of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Railways said the move was to prevent the vulnerable category of senior citizens from undertaking unnecessary travels. "Concessional booking of all tickets except for patients, students and the Divyangjan category for the unreserved and reserved segments is being suspended form 00:00 hrs of 20th March till further advisory,” an order from railways said. novel coronavirus cases in India rose to 169 on Thursday after 18 fresh cases were reported from various parts of the country, according to the Health Ministry. The cases include 25 foreigners — 17 from Italy, 3 from the Philippines, two from the UK, one each belonging to Canada, Indonesia and Singapore.