New Delhi: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said Thursday that booking of train tickets at common service centres will resume from Friday. There are approximately around 1.7 lakh common service centres across Indian. Piyush Goyal said this will help people in remote locations without the availability of computers and internet buy tickets. The minister said bookings will also resume at counters at specific railway stations.
Returning to normalcy
“We have to take India towards normalcy. We are developing a protocol to identify the stations where counters can be opened. We have to ensure that there are no large crowds gathering at counters. So we are studying the situation and devising a protocol towards it,” Goyal said. “We will also soon announce the resumption of more trains,” he further said. He made the announcements during a conversation with his party colleague and BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.
Goyal informed that the Railways started the ‘Shramik Special’ trains from May 1. It has run 2,050 such trains since then, ferrying around 30 lakh migrants, students and other stranded people.
Goyal criticises West Bengal, Jharkhand governments
Goyal also praised Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani for their cooperation with the Railways. He criticised West Bengal and Jharkhand for their non-cooperation in running Shramik Special trains..
The railway minister said till date the Railways has been able to run only 27 trains in West Bengal. Till May 8-May 9, only two trains could reach there. Jharkhand has allowed only 96 trains while Rajasthan has so far received 35 trains, he said. “I expect all states to allow their people to come to their homes and help us reach them by driving trains. Some states like West Bengal and Jharkhand have not cooperated,” Goyal informed.
Tickets of special trains sold out
Goyal also informed that the Railways has also started bookings for 100 pairs of special trains. These trains will have both air conditioned and non-air conditioned services. They will begin operations from June 1. He informed that within 2.5 hours of opening bookings for the 100 pairs of special trains Thursday, four lakh passengers had booked tickets. People have also started reverse bookings to come back to work, he said.
Praise for economic stimulus package
Goyal, who is also the Commerce and Industry minister praised the economic stimulus package. He asserted that the Rs 20 lakh crore package ‘will make the country stronger and enable the MSMEs and other businesses to grow’.
PTI