India In Travel Lockdown

All train services in the country have been suspended until March 31 as the country grinds to a halt in a bid to curb the coronavirus spread. These include sub-urban rail services. However, goods trains are exempted.

The decision was taken on Sunday after the Cabinet Secretary reviewed the COVID-19 status with Chief Secretaries of States and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and railway officials.

Coronavirus cases in the country have crossed 340.

A total of 75 districts in India in Lockdown. @SidharthPandey reports pic.twitter.com/K1clv0q0AN

— GoNewsIndia (@GoNews_India) March 22, 2020

 

The government announced that “in view of the need to contain the spread of COVID 19, it was agreed that there is urgent need to extend the restrictions on the movement of non-essential passenger transport including inter-state transport buses until March 31, 2020”.

It has also been decided to close down metro rail services on all operational networks across the country until March 31.

The Kolkata metro shall be continued at bare minimum level only until 2400 hours of Sunday.

Following detailed discussions, the State Governments were advised to issue appropriate orders to allow only essential services to operate in the 75 districts which have reported confirmed cases or casualties relating to COVID 19. The State Governments may expand the list depending on their assessment of the situation. It was noted that several State Governments have already issued orders in this regard.

“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.

Inter State passenger transport are also to be suspended till 31st March 2020.