Amid Surge In Covid-19 Cases, Indian Railways To Continue Running Trains As Per Demand

In a big relief for passengers amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, the Ministry of Railways has assured said that the train services will continue to run as per demand.

"Indian Railways will continue to provide trains services as per demand," the ministry said on Friday (9 April).

The ministry informed that at present, the Indian Railways is running total 1402 specials train services on an average per day. Total 5381 Suburban train services and 830 Passenger train services are also operational, it added.

Apart from this, 28 special trains are being operated as clones of highly patronized trains with high patronage.

Moreover, additional trains are being run during April-May 2021 to clear rush in Central Railway with 58 trains (29 pairs) and Western Railway with 60 trains (30 pairs). These trains are for destinations having high demand like Gorakhpur, Patna, Darbhanga, Varanasi, Guwahati, Barauni, Prayagraj, Bokaro, Ranchi and Lucknow etc, the ministry said.

In the freight transportation, the Indian Railways transported highest ever loading of 1232.64 Million Tonnes (MT) in the financial year 2020-21. The Freight Revenue of Indian Railways was Rs 1,17,386 crore (approx) for the financial year 2020-21 compared to Rs 1,13,897 crore during 2019-20, the Railway Ministry said.

Indian Railways also doubled the speed of Freight Trains to 44 kmph from 24 kmph in previous year, the ministry said. Similarly, around 450 kisan rail services were running since August 2020, transported over 1.45 lakh tonnes of agricultural produce and perishables, it added.