Indian Railways suspend passenger train services till further notice

The Indian Railways had previously cancelled all passenger train services until August 12 on account of the rise in the number of positive COVID-19 cases in India. However, the railways have extended the cancellation for an indefinite period of time. Reportedly, the 230 special trains will continue to function in the absence of passenger trains. These special trains feature 15 trains on Rajdhani routes running since May 12, 2020, and 100 trains functioning since June 1.

Meanwhile, other regular and suburban trains will keep their services discontinued.The Government of India issued a press statement on August 11, which informed in writing that all passenger and suburban train services will remain suspended.

Before May 12, 2020, the Indian Railways had continued the services of freight trains and parcel special trains carrying essential commodities like vegetables, fruits and dairy products.

All regular passenger and suburban train services will continue to remain suspended till further notice.

Special trains shall continue to run.https://t.co/VyJsXCR8OS pic.twitter.com/hbwkB601st

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) August 11, 2020

In addition, the railways had converted more than 20000 train coaches into COVID-care centres. The 15 pairs of trains are special passenger trains running from New Delhi Railway Station to Howrah, Patna, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai Central, Agartala, Ranchi, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Bilaspur, Dibrugarh, Madgaon and Jammu Tawi.
On the other hand, Indian Railways has plans to run Ganesh Chaturthi Special trains in August. However, it will only go ahead with the plan after receiving the green flag from the Maharashtra government.