Railways to resume operations: How to book train ticket during lockdown?

After the Indian Railways announced its plans to gradually restart passenger train operations, ticket booking by passengers will resume too. However, the tickets can only be booked through the IRCTC website since the booking facility is not available at the railway counters yet, the Indian Railways said in a statement released late Sunday evening. The booking counters will continue to remain closed. The Railways also said that no counter tickets, which includes platform tickets, will be issued yet. The reservation of trains to select 15 routes will begin at 4 pm on May 11, the Indian Railways also said.

"Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations.  It will be mandatory for the passengers to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train. Further details including train schedule will be issued separately in due course," the statement added.

Also read: BREAKING: Railways to restart passenger trains from May 12

The Indian Railways will restart operations for passenger trains from May 12, 2020.  The operations will initially be for 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys). 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.

Based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for coronavirus care centres and adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains everyday as "Shramik Special" for stranded migrants, the Railways would begin more special services on new routes.

India has been under a nationwide lockdown since March 25 to fight against coronavirus. The lockdown is expected to be lifted on May 17. Since lockdown began, passenger train services remained suspended, barring for coronavirus care centres and migrant labourers.