COVID-19: Railways Cancel 84 More Trains, Passengers To Get Refund

Indian Railways cancelled 84 more trains on Thursday, 19 March, as a precautionary measure against the spread of Coronavirus. Image used for representational purpose.

(Photo: iStock )

The Indian Railways on Thursday, 19 March, cancelled 84 more trains, which will not operate between 20 March and 31 March in view of coronavirus and low occupancy, officials said.

With this, the total number of cancelled trains has climbed to 155.

"All passengers having tickets in these trains are being informed about it individually," the official said.

Railways also announced that no cancellation fee will be charged for 155 cancelled trains, the passengers will get 100 percent refund.

On Wednesday, 18 March, the Indian Railways had cancelled 99 trains.

11 trains were cancelled each from west central railway and northern railway, 20 each from south central railway and northeast frontier railway, 32 from southern railway, 5 from east central railway.

The cancellations from other zones were not available at the time of filing.

On Tuesday, 17 March, Railways had cancelled 85 trains. Central railways cancelled 23 trains, south central railways 29 trains, western railways 10 trains, south eastern railways 9 trains, east coast and northern railways 5 trains each and north western railways cancelled 4 trains.

The list includes some popular long haul trains.

As a precautionary measure railway zones like WR and CR have also increased the prices of their platform tickets to discourage large crowds.

Guidelines for Catering Staff

It has also issued a set of guidelines to zonal railways for its catering staff stating no employee having fever, cough, runny nose or difficulty in breathing "should be deployed in the business of food handling on Indian Railways".

“All staff of catering units should be directed to maintain personal hygiene as per the food safety norms/standards of FSSAI,” the guidelines stated.

“All staff to wear a facemask and hand gloves, head gear etc while dealing with food production and services to passengers, staff be advised to wash their hands with soap frequently, avoid contact with people having cough or cold, avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth, hand gloves to be changed frequently and disposed off in closed dustbin,” they added.

It also said that all supervisors deployed in catering establishments be directed to maintain personal hygiene and impart counselling to their subordinates in this regard.

“All staff deployed in food production and services should wash their uniforms on daily basis and wear clean uniforms on duty,” it said.

“Maintenance of proper cleanliness, use of disinfectant on frequently touched objects and surfaces like billing machine, POS machines, coffee machines, counter top, door handles, table, chair, fridge handles, stall frames by using a regular household cleaning spray like Lizol, Dettol, Colin etc,” it said.

Adequate provision of hand soap and sanitisers at all catering units must be ensured and intensive/thorough cleaning of all catering units must be done on a daily basis.

The order stated that proper packaging of food items must be ensured and usage of loose items should be avoided as far as possible.

“Strict prohibition of entry of outsiders/unauthorised people in food dealing area should be ensured. All staff to pay proper attention to advisories/guidelines issued by ministry of health, FSSAI and local health departments of central and state governments from time to time and ensure compliance thereof,” the guidelines said.