Travellers who have nowhere to go and all of a sudden their travel plans become cancelled can stay at Railway retiring rooms till normal services resume.
The Indian Railways issued an order on Monday, a day after it had suspended all movement of passenger trains until the end of March to stop the spread of Covid-19 contagion that has killed at least seven people and infected more than 400 in India.
The Ministry in an official statement stated, “It has been brought to our attention that some passengers who were in retiring rooms and are booked to travel by train after a day or two have been facing problems as all trains are now cancelled and they have nowhere to go,” the ministry said.
“The Railway Board has decided that in all such cases the stay may be extended in supersession of the rule that limits the number of days a passenger can stay in a retiring room,” it said.
Indian Railways was quick to act and issue an immediate advisory to those under quarantine to not travel by train after the national carrier found at least 12 cases of passengers flouting self-quarantine norms and subsequently tested positive for Covid-19. Indian Railways operates as many as 13,523 trains every day.
