The Indian Railways will gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12, initially with 15 pairs of trains, the national transporter said Sunday.

These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.

All passenger train services were suspended due to a lockdown announced on March 25. In a tweet, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said.

Railways plans to gradually restart passenger train operations from 12th May, 2020, initially with 15 pairs of special trains connecting New Delhi with major stations across India. Booking in these trains will start at 4 pm on 11th May.https://t.co/DW9I1sPRx6

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 10, 2020

After the resumption of these 15 services, railways will start more special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centres and adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains everyday as "Shramik Special" for stranded migrants.

Booking for reservation in these trains will start at 4 pm on May 11 and will be available only on the IRCTC website (https://www.irctc.co.in/).

Ticket booking counters at railway stations will remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) will be issued, it said.

Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter railway stations. It will be mandatory for passengers to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the trains.

First Published:May 10, 2020 9:36 PM IST