New Delhi : The Indian Railways to start festival special trains that will be run for destinations such as Kolkata, Patna, Varanasi, Lucknow among others to cater to the growing demand in the holiday period of Durga Puja, Dussehra, Diwali and Chhatt puja. On Tuesday, railways announced it has given approval to run 392 ‘Festival special’ between October 20 and November 30.
These special trains fare will be slightly higher than regular one. According to the railway ministry the fare will be applicable as per the special trains. It means that ‘special charges’ will be applied that will make the tickets costlier by 10-30 % as compared to the ticket fares of Mail/Express trains. As per the current norms, ‘special charges’ are fixed as a percentage of fare at the rate of 10% of basic fare for second class and 30% of basic fare for all other classes.
The ministry of railways said, “It has approved 196 pairs (392 trains) of Festival Special services that will be operated from 20th October 2020 and 30th November 2020. The fare for these Festival Special services shall be that applicable for special trains. Zonal Railways will notify their schedule well in advance”.
The ministry issued an order, in which it stated, these festival special trains will be operated at a speed of 55 kmph. The schedule and booking of the trains will be finalized by the railway zones. These trains will run for a period of 40 days only in addition to the special trains that have been deployed by the national carrier. Currently, the total of 666 mail and express trains are running while all regular trains have been suspended due to COVID-19.
To clear the festive rush, Ministry of Railways has approved 196 pairs (392 trains) of “Festival Special” services over Indian Railways to be operated from 20th October 2020 and 30th November 2020.
Zonal Railways will notify their schedule in advance.https://t.co/KaPpD36NtF pic.twitter.com/XlsvHgdGk0— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) October 13, 2020
Since May 12, the special trains have been run to help stranded people in other states to reach their hometowns. It started with 15 pairs of premium Rajdhani special trains connecting Delhi with different parts of the country, followed by 100 pairs of long-distance trains on June 1. From September 12 , it added 80 trains.