The Ministry of Railways said today that Tejas Express is ready to restart operations for Lucknow-New Delhi and Ahmedabad-Mumbai routes from 14 February, reports Livemint. Tejas is Indian Railways’ corporate train run by the IRCTC.
The operation of the first one – Lucknow-Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express – started on 4 October 2019, while the Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Ahmedabad train hit the rails on 19 January 2020.
The IRCTC had to shut down the operation of Tejas for seven months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas Express was cancelled from 23 November and Ahmedabad-Mumbai from 24 November last year.
It restarted operation of Tejas Express trains from 17 October 2020, however, operations were stopped a month later due to low occupancy.
IRCTC has issued guidelines for how these trains were to function amidst the pandemic – every alternate seat on the two trains will be kept vacant to ensure social distancing and passengers will be thermally screened before entering the coach and not allowed to exchange their seats once seated.
Reportedly, IRCTC will also resume its e-catering service operations in special trains from February in a phased manner, covering 30 railway stations catering to approximately 250 trains