Do you need COVID-19 negative certificate to travel by trains? Here’s what Indian Railways said

Indian Railways said it will continue to provide train services as per demand.

Travelling by train during the pandemic? You do not need to carry a COVID-19 negative certificate. Recently, Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma ruled out the need for passengers to carry a COVID-19 negative certificate to travel by Indian Railways’ trains, according to PTI. Sharma mentioned that those who are travelling by the national transporter only have to follow the recent guidelines and protocols of COVID-19, issued by state governments after cases of novel coronavirus started rising again. Railway passengers have been advised by the Railway Ministry to wear face masks, observe social distancing during their train journeys.

Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways said it will continue to provide train services as per demand. The national transporter, at present, is running 1402 number of special train services across the Indian Railways network on an average per day. Besides, 5381 local/suburban train services, as well as 830 passenger train services, are also operational. Also, a total of 28 special trains are being operated by Indian Railways as clones of highly patronized trains with high patronage. Moreover, to clear the rush of passengers, additional train services are being run during April-May 2021 in the Central Railway zone with 58 trains (29 pairs of trains) and Western Railway zone with 60 trains (30 pairs of trains). These train services are for high-demand destinations like Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Patna, Guwahati, Darbhanga, Varanasi, Barauni, Bokaro, Prayagraj, Ranchi, etc.

According to the Railway Ministry, in the financial year 2020-21, Indian Railways, in the freight transportation, transported the highest ever loading of 1232.64 Million Tonnes. Indian Railways’ Freight Revenue for the financial year 2020-21 was around Rs 1,17,386 crore compared to Rs 1,13,897 crore during fiscal 2019-20. The national transporter also doubled the speed of freight trains to 44 km per hour from 24 km per hour in the previous year. Besides, 450 Kisan Rail train services operated since August 2020 transported more than 1.45 lakh Tonnes of agricultural produce and perishables, the ministry added.