COVID-19: Railways withdraw concessional tickets to avoid rush

After increasing the prices of platform tickets, the Indian Railways on Thursday withdrew most concessional ticket facilities in trains as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus, officials said.

Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Chief Public Relations Officer Subhanan Chanda said that to discourage unnecessary travel and to prevent the vulnerable category of senior citizens from undertaking needless travels, concessional booking of all tickets except patients, students and 'Divyangjan' category for unreserved and reserved segment are being suspended from the March 20 till further advisory.

He said that railways has also facilitated return of students stranded in the northern part of the country due to sudden closure of educational institutions to their homes in southern, northeastern and eastern regions of India. Chanda said that as a precautionary measure and to discourage non-essential travel and overcrowding of trains, so far total 155 pairs of low occupancy trains are cancelled up to March 31.

"Trains are cancelled keeping in view the availability of alternate trains for passengers and ensuring that no passenger shall remain stranded. Full refund is being given to all the passengers whose train has been cancelled," the CPRO said.

To avoid unnecessary gatherings in the railway platforms, the Railway Board has earlier ordered raising of platform ticket prices to Rs 30 to 50 from the existing Rs 10 at important stations which deal with a large rush of passengers or visitors. IANS