Railway issues 'restoration plan', asks to prepare for resumption of se

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Railways has begun preparing to resume all its services from April 15 after a 21-day suspension of its passenger trains in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.Sources said all railway safety personnel, running staff, guards, TTE and other officials have been told to be ready to join their posts from April 15. Trains, however, will begin operations only after a green signal from the government which had formed a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the issue.

Meanwhile, the railways has issued a "restoration plan" to all its railway zones with a schedule of trains to be run, their frequency and the availability of rakes. All 17 zones have been sent a missive to be prepared to run their respective services, the source said. Around 80 per cent trains are expected to run as per schedule from April 15 which include Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto trains. Local trains too are likely to begin operations.

Sources say the railways is likely to also conduct thermal screening on all passengers and follow all protocols as advised by the government. Senior officials, however, said no fresh orders have been issued and since cancellations were only upto April 14 "no fresh orders required for starting with effect from April 15."

Sources said a concrete action plan will be sent to the zones later this week.

In an unprecedented move, the railways had suspended the services of 13,523 trains for 21 days after the lockdown was announced by the PM on March 24. Its freight trains however continued to run during this period.

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