Within minutes, train tickets sold out for next five days

New Delhi, May 12: Within 20 minutes, the bookings for the Howrah-New Delhi train was sold out. It was fully booked for the next five days. The case was similar for the Mumbai-New Delhi train as well.

A Railway spokesperson said that by 9.15 pm, 30,000 PNRs had been generated and reservations were made for more than 54,000 passengers. The booking facility that began at 4 pm on Monday had to be put off for two hours due to technical glitches.

Railway officials said that Special Randhanis would run as scheduled and there was no instruction to curtail the list of destinations. They will run full, the spokesperson also said.

The trains are running today after a gap of nearly 51 days. Passengers would have to bring their own food and blankets and also reach the stations 90 minutes prior to departure. They would also need to keep their masks on and have been advised to download the Aarogya Setu application on their phones. However, downloading the application is not a pre-condition for travel.

Passengers will be given hand sanitisers on entry and exit and would be allowed to enter the stations only if they show no symptoms and clear thermal screening. Meanwhile, the Railways has modified the temperature to be maintained following discussions with health professionals. It has been decided that the AC in the coach will refresh the air 12 times an hour.