Indian Railways to provide service as per demand; 1402 specials, 5381 Suburban trains already in operation, says Railway Board chairman

Amid speculation that Indian Railways may curtail service in the view of Covid 19 pandemic, a statement from the Ministry of Railways has confirmed that the railways will continue to provide trains services as per demand. "Train services will continue to be provided as per the demand. There is no shortage of train services and no plan to stop train services," said Suneet Sharma, Chairman & CEO, Railway Board.  

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"Indian Railways is running a total of 1402 specials train services on an average per day. Total 5381 Suburban train services and 830 Passenger train services are also operational. Apart from this, 28 special trains are being operated as clones of highly patronized trains with high patronage," said the Ministry of Railways.  

Moreover, additional trains are being run during April-May 2021 to clear rush in Central Railway with 58 trains (29 pairs) and Western Railway with 60 trains (30 pairs). These trains are for destinations having high demand like Gorakhpur, Patna, Darbhanga, Varanasi, Guwahati, Barauni, Prayagraj, Bokaro, Ranchi and Lucknow etc. 

In the freight transportation, Indian Railways transported Highest ever loading of 1232.64 Million Tonnes (MT) in the financial year 2020-21. The Freight Revenue of Indian Railways was Rs 1,17,386 Cr (approx) for the financial year 2020-21 compared to Rs 1,13,897 Cr during 2019-20. Indian Railways also doubled the speed of Freight Trains to 44 kmph from 24 kmph in previous year. 

Also,  450 Kisan Rail services run since August 2020 have transported over 1.45 lakh Tonnes of agricultural produce & perishables.