From 28 million to just 1.9 million passengers daily: Coronavirus affect on Indian railways
NEW DELHI: The impact of Coronavirus pandemic on Indian railways has been such that even in the festive season, just 10% of the total trains are being run, currently, in India.
The Indian Railways that runs 13,000 passenger trains is just running 1,308 trains. The result is that compared to 2.8 crore (28 million) daily travellers till last year, just 19 lakh (1.9 million) people are travelling by the trains in India, right now.
This is the situation after more than seven months of pandemic in India. Railways is suffering a huge loss due to the lack of passengers. However, officials say that they are conducting a daily review of the demand and taking decision in this regard.
The Railway officials claim that they would be running more trains on the occasion of the festivals, especially, Diwali. However, due to fewer trains, large number of people have shifted to air travel. There is high fare for passenger flights, several times the normal fare, due to lack of trains.
[November 1, 2020 Newsbits.in]
