Nation: Indian Railways cancels reservations on regular trains till 30th June; special trains will continue as planned.

Indian Railways, on Thursday, announced the cancellation of reservations on regular trains till 30th June. Although special trains, including Shramik Special trains for migrant workers, which began operating from 1st May and special trains which started on May 12th will continue to function as per the planned schedule.

The government previously had announced resuming of train operations by starting special Rajdhani trains. During the meeting held between PM Modi & the Chief Ministers, this announcement was questioned by some and even met with resistance at the behest of the general public. In lieu of public safety, Indian railways cancelled the regular train bookings made till 30th June and will provide a full refund, as per the PTI report.

Due to the pandemic triggered lockdown, Indian Railways has suspended all regular mail, express, passenger and suburban train services since 25th of March. All reservations done for regular trains were stopped till May 17, when Lockdown 3.0 ends.

Bihar and Telangana reportedly expressed concern after the centre's decision to resume interstate travel. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was disappointed with the announcement as he believed that the centre should've taken his opinion on restarting train travel as he was a former Railway Minister. He also said that resuming any of the minimalist travel by air, rail or roads was a mistake.

IRCTC has started taking destination addresses of passengers in lieu of enabling definite contact tracing if required in future.