In a major development, the Indian Railways on Sunday announced that it will gradually resume operations of passenger train from May 12. According to an official statement from the ministry, off all the passenger trains that were suspended due to a lockdown announced on March 25, initially, 15 pairs of trains will run.

"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," the national transporter said.

After the resumption of these 15 services, railways will start more special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centres and an adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains every day as Shramik Special for stranded migrants.

How to book tickets for passenger trains?

Going by the directives issued by the Railway Ministry, booking for reservation of passenger trains will start at 4 pm on May 11 and will be available only on the IRCTC website.

Officials said that ticket booking counters at railway stations will remain closed. Counter tickets, including platform tickets, will be issued.

Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter railway stations. It will be mandatory for passengers to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the trains.

Earlier on Sunday, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal appealed all the states to allow the operation of migrant special trains in order to bring the stranded migrants to their homes in the next three to four days. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Railways Minister said that following the directives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian Railways is all set to run as many as 300 Shramik Special trains everyday.