The Indian Railways will gradually restart passenger train operations fromMay 12, initially with 15 pairs of trains, the national transporter said onSunday.  

These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhistation connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi,Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon,Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.

All passenger train services were suspended due to alockdown announced on March 25.

After the resumption of these 15 services, Railways will start more special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centers and the adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains every day as "Shramik Special" for stranded migrants.          

Booking for reservation in these trains will start at 4 pmon May 11 and will be available only on the IRCTC website(https://www.irctc.co.in/).

Ticket booking counters at railway stations will remainclosed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) will be issued, itsaid.

Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowedto enter railway stations. It will be mandatory for passengers to wear facecover and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers willbe allowed to board the trains.