New Delhi: The Railways’ Passenger Reservation System (PRS) will be shut down for six hours during the lean business hours of night for the next seven days. This will be done as part of the national transporter’s efforts to normalise passenger services and revert back to pre-Covid times in a phased manner. The step is to enable upgradation of system data, new train numbers and other work, the Railway Ministry said Sunday.
“Since a huge amount of past (old train numbers) and current passenger booking data is to be updated in all mail/express trains, this is being planned in a series of carefully calibrated steps and implemented during night hours in order to minimise the impact on ticketing services,” the Indian Railways said in a release.
“The activity will be performed starting from the intervening night of November 14 and 15 to the night of November 20 and 21, starting at 23:30 hours and ending at 0530 hours,” the release added.
During these six hours (from 23:30 to 05:30 hours) period, no Passenger Reservation System (PRS) services like ticket reservation, current booking, cancellation, enquiry services, among others, will be available.
Besides railway personnel will ensure advance charting for the trains to start during the affected timings. Except for the PRS services, all other enquiry services, including 139 services, will continue uninterrupted, the Railway Ministry noted.
“The Ministry of Railways has requested its customers to support the ministry in the effort to normalise and upgrade the passenger services,” it said.
The Indian Railways had Friday issued an order to discontinue the ‘special’ tag for mail and express trains and revert to pre-pandemic ticket prices with immediate effect.
The officials, however, said the curbs introduced in view of the pandemic such as temporary restrictions on concessions, bedrolls and meal services, would continue to be in effect.