No passenger trains till May 3, advance booking suspended till further notice
The Indian Railways has suspended all passenger trains till May 3 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced that the 21-day lockdown would be extended by another 19 days. The railways said no advance booking of train tickets will be allowed till further notice. It will fully refund fares for the cancelled services.
“Resumption of train services as may be warranted in consideration of public safety, keeping in view the emergent situation, shall be announce in due course,” the railways said in a statement.
Freight and parcel operation shall continue, it added.
In his televised address to the nation today, PM Modi said there will be strict enforcement of lockdown till April 20 and there could be relaxation in some areas if the situation improves.
“Till April 20, we will monitor how well the districts are doing. In places where the situation is improving, few relaxations will be made,” said Modi who addressed the nation for the fourth time including one with a video message.
As for relaxations during April 20 to May 3, Prime Minister indicated that priority will be towards easing the hardships for unorganized and daily wage earners, farm sector and essential services. Detailed guidelines, Prime Minister said will be released tomorrow.
“We will issue a detailed guideline tomorrow. We are making attempts so that farmers, poor people are least affected. If we will have patience, we will defeat the coronavirus,” the Prime Minister said.
There will strict enforcement of lockdown till April 20 after which there could be graded relaxations in areas based on the epidemiological assessment – incidence of the outbreak and the intensity – for respective regions. He also added that the relaxation could be withdrawn later if there is any fresh cases of COVID 19 found in the area.
INDIAN EXPRESS
