Key Points:
- Private Tejas Express trains will begin operation from October 17.
- Ministry of Railways agreed to the running of the corporate trains.
- Social Distancing and sanitization will take place mandatorily.
- The official statement said that seats will be allotted alternately to the passengers.
- SOP’s will be followed by the train employees and the passengers too.
The restart of the first set of ‘Private’ Tejas Express trains will be from October 17, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) said on Wednesday. The train will run seven months after the Lucknow-New Delhi and Ahmedabad-Mumbai services were suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Vinod Kumar Yadav, the Railway Board Chairman, a week back announced that the Indian Railways plans to run more than 200 trains during the upcoming festive season between October 15 and November 30.
“After the Ministry of Railways waived a green flag for starting the operations of the two popular corporate trains, IRCTC is making all round arrangements to make sure that the trains once started, complete expectations of the travelers in terms of levels of services and safety and health protocols amidst the ongoing pandemic,”
an official statement said.
- Every alternate seat will be kept vacant.
- Social Distancing will be maintained.
- Passengers will be thermally screened before entering the coach.
- Sanitization of passengers before they enter in the train will be mandatorily done.
- Passengers are not allowed to change seats once seated.
- Passengers will be provided “Covid-19 Protection Kits”.
- A bottle of sanitizer, a mask, one face shield and a pair of gloves will be included in the kit.
To ensure passenger safety, Standard Operating Procedures are to be strictly followed by them and the IRCTC has conducted an extensive training program to train its team of employees on board to look after if the SOP’s are being followed or not.
Lucknow-Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express- the first corporate train, started on 4 October, 2019, while the Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Ahmedabad train hit the rails on 19 January.
