Apart from the 230 special trains that will continue to be in service, all other regular passenger train services will remain suspended until further notice, informed the Indian Railways on Wednesday.
A statement from the Indian Railways said, “This is to bring to the notice of all concerned that as decided and informed earlier as well, regular passenger and suburban train services will continue to remain suspended till further notice.”
It may be noted that 230 special trains, which are running at present, will continue to operate. Local trains in Mumbai, which are presently being run on a limited basis only on the requisition of the state government, will also continue to run, it said.
The occupancy of special trains is being monitored on a regular basis and additional special trains may be run based on the requirement, the national carrier said.
However, all other regular trains and suburban trains run before the lockdown will remain suspended for the time being, it said.
All special trains, 12 pairs running on the Rajdhani routes since May 12, and 100 pairs operating since June 1 will continue.
The limited special suburban services which began recently in Mumbai to ferry essential services personnel identified by the local authorities will also continue to run, officials said.
Earlier, the national transporter had suspended all services till August 12.
With the suspension of passenger trains indefinitely, Indian Railways has estimated a loss of around Rs 40,000 crore in its passenger business for this fiscal.
The extension of the suspension comes at a time when active COVID-19 cases in India stand at 6,39,929 cases while 15,83,489 people have recovered from the disease, according to the Union Health Ministry.
On Tuesday, a single day spike of 53,601 COVID-19 cases pushed India's virus caseload to 22,68,675 with the death toll climbing to 45,257.