Nearly 1.79 lakh tickets booked in first 3 hours for special trains running from June 1

New Delhi: Nearly 1.79 lakh tickets were booked within three hours of opening the bookings for the 200 special trains that will begin on June 1, officials said.

The list included popular trains such as Durontos, Sampark Krantis, Jan Shatabdis and Poorva Express are included in the 200 special trains.

At 01pm, 76 trains were available in the system for booking. 1,78,990 tickets were booked having 4,23,538 passengers, the official statement said.

Bookings for these trains commenced at 10 am via Railway ticketing arm IRCTC. Only online e-ticketing will be done through IRCTC website or through Mobile App.

Booking will not be permitted through reservation counter railway station, booking agents. The advance reservation period in these special trains will be 30 days.

These trains will have both air-conditioned and non air-conditioned classes.

No catering charges shall be included in the fare. Provision for pre paid meal booking, e-catering shall be disabled. However, IRCTC shall make provision for limited eatables and packaged drinking water on payment basis only in limited trains, having Pantry car attached, an official release said.

No Linen, blankets and curtains shall be provided inside the train. Passengers will have to carry their own linen for the travel.

Zonal Railways have been instructed to ensure that there are separate entry and exit gates at Railway stations to the extent feasible so that there is no face to face movement of passengers. Zonal railways will be guided by standard social distancing guidelines on stations and trains and observe the safety, security and hygiene protocols.

All passengers must download and use the Aarogya Setu application, the Railway Ministry said.