Indian Railways has announced gradual restart of passenger train services from tomorrow. Initially 15 pairs of trains will ply with passengers onboard. 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. Booking for reservation in these trains will start at 4 pm today and will be available only on the IRCTC website.

Ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed and counter tickets will not be issued. Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations. Passengers will have to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train. Railways will start more special services on new routes. 20 thousand coaches have been reserved as COVID-19 care centres and adequate number of coaches are also kept reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains everyday as Shramik Special for stranded migrants.

Meanwhile Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to deploy Central teams to 10 states that have witnessed/are witnessing high case load and high spurt of cases. The teams will assist the State Health departments of respective states to facilitate management of COVID-19 outbreak.

The teams are composed of a senior official from the MoHFW, a Joint Secretary level nodal officer and a public health expert. The team shall support the State health department in implementation of containment measures in the affected areas within the respective states’ districts/cities. The teams are being sent to the

following States:

1. Gujarat

2. Tamil Nadu

3. Uttar Pradesh

4. Delhi

5. Rajasthan

6. Madhya Pradesh

7. Punjab

8. West Bengal

9. Andhra Pradesh

10.Telangana

This is besides the 20 central teams of public health experts who were earlier sent to the high case load districts.

A high level team had recently been deputed to Mumbai to support the State efforts in COVID-19 response and management.