Will Indian Railways Resume All Trains From April, 2021? Here’s The Official Statement

In an announcement made by the Ministry of Railways in regard to the news circulating on media about resumption of train services to pre-Covid levels by April 2021, in view of declining cases of Covid-19 in the country.

Trak.in recently reported an expectation of resumption of 100% passenger trains in the foreseeable future, however did not commit to any specific timeline.

The ministry released a statement, clarifying that it has been constantly informing media sources that ‘no specific timeline/date has been fixed for resumption of all passenger trains operations.’

Railways Resuming New Trains/Month

As the number of Covid cases being reported across the country is showing a fall down, the travel restrictions are being reduced in severity too.

The Railway Ministry too has stated increasing  the number of train services in a graded manner, complying to safe travels during the ongoing pandemic.

Currently, over 65% passenger trains are in operation, with newer trains resuming and adding to this list every month.

The ministry also informed that operations of over 250 trains were added in the month of January alone, with about 100-200 trains being added to the line per month.

This ensures that trains can be expected to operate at their pre-Covid numbers in near future, while no designated timeline has been disclosed yet.

The ministry has informed that before resuming 100% trains services, a lot of factors will need to be taken care of, along with inputs of all stakeholders.

Railways’ Revenue Falls by Rs 36,993 Cr

Answering a question in Lok Sabha, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal informed the Parliament on Wednesday that the revenue of Railways’ reduced by Rs 36,993 crore in 2020.

He added that this decline in revenue was due to the adverse impact of Covid-19 pandemic-induced nationwide lockdown and partial operation of train services across the country in 2020.

“Total traffic revenue of railways in the current year to end of December 2020 has declined by ?36,993.82 crore compared to corresponding period of last year.”, stated Goyal.

Of this amount, Rs 32,768.97 crore is due to the decline in passenger revenues during this period.