As part of partial restoration of train services, South Central Railway (SCR) has begun services of nine special trains. Around 13,000 passengers travelled on these nine special train services on Monday.
The trains were Hyderabad–New Delhi Telangana special express, Secunderabad–Howrah Falaknuma special express, Hyderabad–Vishakhapatnam Godavari special express and Hyderabad–Mumbai CST special express.
Elaborate arrangements have been made at the Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Guntur, Tirupati, Vijayawada and Nanded stations to ensure coordinated movement of the passengers to maintain physical distance and other health precautions in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Officials said railway stations have been sanitised and disinfected for safe travel of the passengers while separate entry and exit gates were opened to handle incoming and outgoing passengers at the stations.
“Thorough evaluation of arrangements have been made to ensure that only confirmed passengers are allowed to enter the stations. Screening of all the passengers was carried out and only asymptomatic passengers are allowed into the stations,” said a senior official. Sanitisers were made available while markings were done on platforms for guiding the passengers to practice physical distancing at the stations. Arrangements had been made to ensure that all passengers wore face masks. SCR General Manager Gajanan Mallya advised officials to be alert and to continuously supervise the train operations.