MEMBERS REFERENCE SERVICE LARRDIS LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT NEW DELHI REFERENCE NOTE For the use of Members of Parliament NOT FOR PUBLICATION No. 26/RN/Ref./June/2020 ROLE OF INDIAN RAILWAYS IN ADDRESSING CHALLENGES DURING THE LOCKDOWN PERIOD Prepared by Smt. Shalima Sharma, Deputy Director (23035499) and Shri Baikunthanath Mohapatra, Joint Director (23035477) under the supervision of Shri Naushad Alam, Director (23034749) of Lok Sabha Secretariat. reference The Reference Note is for personal use of the Members in the discharge of their Parliamentary duties, and is not for publication. This Service is not to be quoted as the source of information as it is based on the sources indicated at the end/in the context. ROLE OF INDIAN RAILWAYS IN ADDRESSING CHALLENGES DURING THE LOCKDOWN PERIOD “Proud of the Indian Railways Team. They have been continuously helping our citizens in the crucial hour” –Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Ministry of India. Introduction The world including India has suffered a significant setback by the COVID-19. Indian Railways geared up its entire machinery in a big way to take comprehensive measures on prevention of COVID-19 virus infection. To prevent the spread of the disease, all passenger services including Premium Trains Mails, Express Trains and Suburban trains were cancelled by the Indian Railways from 22 March 2020. Comprehensive Measures taken by the Indian Railways to fight Covid-19: To ensure an uninterrupted and seamless supply of chain of goods and essential commodities in the wake of COVID-19, Indian Railways is offering its unhindered services to meet the needs of the citizens of the nation in various ways which are as follows:- Freight Trains Operations: Indian Railways operated uninterrupted 24x7 Freight Trains in order to ensure availability of essential commodities throughout the country. From 24 March 2020 to 22 May 2020 Railways moved more than 23.2 lakh wagons of commodities including approx. 13.5 lakh wagons of essential commodities like food, grams, salt, sugar, edible oil, coal and petroleum products. From 01 April 2020 to 22 May 2020 the total quantity of foodgrains loaded and transported by Indian Railways was 9.7 Million Tonnes as compared to 4.6 Million Tonnes in the corresponding period of last year. New Parcel Special Trains: While the freight Train operations of Indian Railways are meeting the needs of bulk transportation of essential commodities, there are various items that need to be delivered in comparatively smaller quantities. To serve this purpose Railways operated Parcel Special Trains on over Eight Nine (89) identified and notified routes to ensure uninterrupted supply of essential items like medical supplies, medical equipments, fruits, vegetables, milk and dairy products and seeds for agricultural work, etc. Total 3,255 parcel trains have been operated from 22 March 2020 till 22 May 2020. -2- Facility of Railway Parcel Van have also been provided by the Railways for quick transportation of essential items in small parcel sizes to supplement the supply chain during this lockdown period. Railway Health Services: Indian Railways is playing a key role in addressing the challenges caused by the nationwide lockdown by providing the following Health Services. Indian Railways have a chain of 586 Health units, 45 Sub-divisional Hospitals, 8 Production Units Hospitals, 16 Zonal Hospitals spread all over the country. A significant portion of these facilities has been dedicated to combat the Corona Virus. Availability of 2500 posts of Doctors and 35,000 para medic staff including nursing staff, pharmacist. Around 5000 beds in 17 dedicated hospitals and 33 Hospital Blocks in Railway Hospitals have been identified for treatment of COVID-19 patients. 11,000 quarantine beds have been made available across the Indian Railways establishments. A total of 20,000 coaches with 3.2 lakh beds have been identified for conversion in case of requirement. Production of 20 lakh reusable face masks and more than 1.4 lakh of hand sanitiser have been produced. Production of 1.2 lakh Coveralls of Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) till 21 May 2020. Free Meals Supply by IRCTC The global pandemic has created unprecedented situations leaving a large number of people vulnerable to hunger. Those worst hit by this pandemic and lockdown are stranded persons, daily wage labourers, migrants, children, coolies, homeless, the poor and many who form the floating population. Indian Railways staff from a number of Railway organizations have worked tirelessly since 28 March 2020 to provide hot cooked meals to needy people after the lockdown due to COVID-19. Distribution of food is being done with the help of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Government Railway Police (GRP), commercial departments of Zones, State Governments, District administrations and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), even beyond the station vicinity to cater to the food requirements of needy people in areas surrounding the railway stations. With the active cooperation of Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) base kitchens, over 4.7 million free meals were served till 22 May 2020. -3- Shramik Special Trains Subsequent to the Ministry of Home Affairs order regarding movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons stranded at different places by special trains, Indian Railways has been operating “Shramik Special” trains form 1May 2020. Total 3840 “Shramik Special” trains have been operationalized till 28 May 2020 from various states across the country while about 67 "Shramik Special Trains" are in the pipeline. Till 27 May 2020 around 50 lakh migrants have been transported through Shramik Special Trains in 27 days. These 3840 trains were originated from various States. The top five States/UTs from where maximum trains originated are Gujarat(979 Trains), Maharashtra(695 Trains), Punjab(397 Trains), Uttar Pradesh (263 Trains) and Bihar (263 Trains). These “Shramik Special” Trains were terminated in various States across the country. The top five states where maximum trains terminated are Uttar Pradesh(1520 Trains), Bihar(1296 Trains), Jharkhand(167 Trains), Madhya Pradesh(121 Trains), Odisha (139 Trains). Indian Railways has distributed more than 85 lakh free meals and about 1.25 crore free water bottles to migrants travelling in Shramik Special Trains since 1 May 2020. This includes meals prepared by Indian Railways Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and distributed by Zonal Railways. Special Passenger Trains The Indian Railways resumed passenger train services from 12 May 2020. Initially, the all air- conditioned services started on Rajdhani routes and the fare was equivalent to that of the super- fast trains. A total of 15 special trains (30, considering the return) from New Delhi to 15 Major cities with Eighty (80) total stoppages are: Table: Special Passenger Trains S. No. From To S. No. From To 1. New Delhi Dibrugarh 9. New Delhi Bengaluru 2. New Delhi Agartala 10. New Delhi Chennai 3. New Delhi Howrah 11. New Delhi Thiruvananthapuram 4. New Delhi Patna 12. New Delhi Madgaon 5. New Delhi Bilaspur 13. New Delhi Mumbai Central 6. New Delhi Ranchi 14. New Delhi Ahmedabad 7. New Delhi Bhubaneswar 15. New Delhi Jammu Tawi 8. New Delhi Secunderabad -3- Initially tickets were sold through Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) but subsequently tickets were also available on Passenger Reservation System (PRS), Counters and with Authorised Agents. Passengers with confirmed/RAC tickets are allowed to enter the railway station and board the train, Waitlisted Passengers are not allowed to enter the railway station board, there is no provision for Booking of Tatkal Tickets in these trains. Railway Control Centre Railway Emergency Cell for COVID is a comprehensive nation-wide Unit comprising of about 400 Officers and staff from Railway Board to Divisions. During the lockdown, the Cell responded to about 13,000 queries, requests and suggestions every day, from five communication and feedback platforms - Help lines 139 and 138, social media (specially Twitter), email ([email protected]) and CPGRAMS. More than 90% of the queries were responded on one-to-one basis, mostly in the local language of the caller, over telephone. RailMadad Helpline 139 answered over 2,30,000 queries on one-on-one basis in first four weeks of the lockdown and over 1,10,000 calls were received on Helpline 138, which was geofenced, that is, calls land on the nearest Railway Divisional Control Office. Current Scenario: Bringing Gradual Normalcy in Train Operations Ministry of Railways (MoR) after consultation with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) partially restored train services w.e.f. from 1June 2020. List of 200 passenger train services is given in the Annexure. These trains are in addition to the existing Shramik Special trains and Special Passenger AC trains (30 trains). These are running on the pattern of Regular Trains and are fully reserved trains having both AC and Non-AC classes. General Seating(GS) coaches have reserved sitting accommodation. There will be no unreserved coach in the train. Normal class-wise fare will be charged. Passengers travelling by these special services will observe the following precautions : All passengers must wear face covers/masks at the entry and during travel. The passengers shall reach the station 90 minutes in advance to facilitate thermal screening at the station. Passengers who are found asymptomatic will be permitted to travel. -4- Passengers shall observe social distancing. On arrival at their destination, the travelling passengers will have to adhere to health protocols as are prescribed by the destination State/UT. Refund Rules: If during screening at the station a passenger has very high temperature/symptoms of Covid-19, he shall not be allowed to travel despite having confirmed tickets. In such case full refund shall be provided to passenger Catering: No catering charges shall be included in the fare.