Coronavirus : Railways cancels 84 more trains till March 31; hikes platform ticket prices
The Indian Railways on Thursday has cancelled more 84 trains taking total number to 155 due to low occupancy and as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus spread, according to PTI report. These trains will not operate between March 20 and March 31, officials said.
"All passengers having tickets in these trains are being informed about it individually," the official said.
On Wednesday, the Indian Railways cancelled more than 100 trains. Eleven trains were cancelled each from West Central Railway and Northern Railway, 20 each from South Central Railway and northeast frontier railway, 32 from Southern Railway, five from East Central Railway.
Railways on Tuesday had issued a set of guidelines to zonal railways for its catering staff stating 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 railways even increased the prices of the platform tickets at over 250 stations from ₹10 to ₹50 to stop the crowding at the railway stations," a senior Railway Ministry official said.
He said the decision was taken in order to regulate unnecessary crowding at stations, as a temporary measure.
He said railway board has directed all DRM's to raise Platform ticket prices to ₹50 at important stations that deals with large passengers or visitors rush.
He said, the prices of platform tickets also has been increased at New Delhi railway station to ₹50.
The official said the Western Railway has increased the platform ticket fare to ₹50 for railway stations of Mumbai, Vadodra, Ahmedabad, Ratlam, Rajkot and Bhavnagar. "The increase in the platform ticket prices is a temporary measure to contain extra load of people in the railway premises", he said.
The Central Railway increased the prices of the platform tickets at over 174 stations, while the East Central Railway increased the prices of platform tickets at 10 stations in Bihar.
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