Covid-19: India’s IRCTC suspends Tejas trains until 30 April

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State-owned Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) has announced that it has suspended the operations of the three Tejas trains until 30 April amid the increasing coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in India.

IRCTC operates three private premium passenger trains, called Tejas trains, in three routes. The trains cancelled operate on the routes, namely Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Lucknow-New Delhi-Lucknow and Kashi Mahakal express.

In an official statement cited by LiveMint, IRCTC stated: “Full ticket fare will be refunded automatically, without any cancellation charges, to all the users/passengers having booked tickets for journey during the above period.”

Last week, India’s South Central Railway (SCR) announced that it is going to quarantine around 90 employees who came into contact with people returning from Nizamuddin, Delhi, for 14 days.

Last month, Indian Ministry of Railways announced that the suspension of passenger railway operations will be extended until 14 April.

This measure includes the Premium trains, Mail/Express trains, passenger trains, Suburban Trains, Kolkata Metro Rail and Konkan Railway among others.

India has also planned to use train coaches as Covid-19 isolation wards in response to the growing number of cases.

On 24 March, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown of the country, which is slated to end on 14 April.

India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has so far reported around 4,643 cases in the country and 149 deaths.

The pandemic has so far killed more than 82,000 and infected over 1,441,000 people worldwide.