Indian Railways Will Run 200 Special Trains For Festive Season: Routes, Fares, Availability

By Malvika Gurung Last updated Oct 2, 2020

Indian Railways plans to start 200 special trains in the festive season.

Last month we covered a story, wherein we informed you that the Ministry of Railways had announced to add around 100 new passenger trains with the start of Unlock 4.0, to further facilitate travel options across the country.

The Ministry also informed that on successfully adding 100 new trains, it will be adding 20 more to reduce the load on the already operational train routes.

In a recent virtual press conference, the Railway Board Chairman and CEO VK Yadav informed that they are planning to introduce 200 special trains from Oct 15 to Nov 30, for facilitating the travel in the festive season.

200 Special Trains to Launch for Festive Season

Festive season every year sees a lot of rush, from all over the country, leading to unprecedented congestion.

Indian Railways is planning to start 200 special trains between October 15 and November 30, to attend to passengers during the festive season.

Yadav has claimed that during the festive season, Indian Railways has decided to carry passenger services on an everyday basis, depending upon the needs of the state governments and the status of the pandemic.

“We have conducted meetings with the general managers of zones and instructed them to speak with local administration and review the status of Covid-19.

They have been asked to give us a report after which we will decide how many trains can be introduced during the holiday season.

Our estimate as of now is that we will run around 200 trains, but it is an estimate, the number could be more”, said Yadav.

Currently, the Indian Railways is operating 230 special trains, which will continue their operation even with the addition of new trains.

After the lockdOwN got relaxed, 30 Rajdhani-type trains were started and 200 more trains were added since June 1.

To give you a brief number, Indian Railways operated a total of 4,165 Shramik Special trains from May 1 to July 9, transporting over 63 lakh migrant workers and people stranded in cities to their home cities amid the pandemic period.