More trains set to resume, physical bookings soon

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways will allow reopening of reservation counters and booking of tickets through 1.7 lakh common service centres and agents from Friday, the Railway Board said on Thursday, adding that the decision will make “ticket booking easy” for travellers. The announcement comes on a day the railways issued a list of additional 100 pairs of trains that it will run from June 1, apart from the Sharmik Special trains being used to ferry stranded migrant workers.

NEW DELHI:: The Indian Railways has allowed reopening of reservation counters at select stations and booking through Common Service Centres (CSCs) and agents, the ministry of railways said Thursday.

“Opening of all these booking facilities once again will mark an important step in the graded restoration of passenger railway services and making the task of ticket booking easy for all prospective travelers from all parts of India in reserved trains. Zonal railways may adhere to standard social distancing guidelines and observe the hygiene protocols ,” the ministry said.

Booking of train tickets will resume at around 1.7 lakh common service centres across the country from Friday onward, Union railway minister Piyush Goyal also said. Railways will also allow booking at counters across the station soon, he said. This will make the service accessible to those in remote locations. He said bookings will also resume at counters at specific railway stations over the next couple of days. Zonal Railways have been instructed to decide and notify the opening of reservation counters in a phased manner on Friday along with dissemination of information about their locations and timings as per local needs.

“We will announce resumption of more trains... We have to ensure that there are no large crowds gathering at counters to book tickets, so we are studying the situation and devising a protocol towards it,” Goyal said. He was speaking at an interaction with BJP leader Sambit Patra.