Coronavirus: Indian Railways suspends all passenger train services till March 31

New Delhi : The Indian Railways on Sunday announced that all passenger trains across the country will remain suspended till March 31 extending its initial order of cancelling trains only on March 22 for the Janta Curfew.

This comes after India registered a sudden spike in the number of coronavirus cases.

Meanwhile, the goods train will be exempted from the lockdown to ensure essential things reach people.

"All originating long-distance mail/Express and Intercity trains (including premium trains) and all originating passenger trains shall remain cancelled till 2400 hours of 31.03.2020," it said in a circular.

"As advised earlier, suburban trains and trains of Metro Railway, Kolkata shall be continued at bare minimum level until 2400 hours of 22.03.2020. Thereafter, all suburban trains and trains of Metro Railway, Kolkata shall be totally cancelled from 2400 hours of 22.03.2020 to 2400 hours of 31.03.2020," it added.

A high-level meeting was held among the Railway board before passing the order. 

Earlier, two state governments - West Bengal and Jharkhand - had ordered a ban on entry of all train till March 31.

On Saturday, the Indian Railways found at least 12 passengers flouting self-quarantine norms and subsequently testing positive for Sar-Cov-2.

"Railways has found some cases of Coronavirus infected passengers in trains which makes train travel risky. Please avoid train travel as you may also get infected if your co-passenger has Coronavirus. Please postpone all journeys and keep yourself and your loved ones safe," the ministry of railways said in its advisory issued Saturday.

Two more passengers were deboarded from the Mumbai to Delhi Rajdhani on Saturday evening. Officials of the railways ministry said the passengers were returning from Dubai and asked to get down at Surat after their quarantine stamps were identified.