Lockdown: Can you book train tickets for traveling after April 14? Railways clarifies

Following certain media reports that ticket reservations have begun for travel after April 14,  the Railways ministry on Thursday clarified that ticketing for the said period was never stopped. "Certain media reports have claimed that Railways has started reservation for the post-lockdown period. It is to clarify that reservation for journeys post  April 14 was never stopped and is not related to any new announcement," the ministry tweeted on Thursday.

It added that ticket bookings were stopped only for the lockdown period between March 24 and April 14. "Since the advance reservation period for taking reserved tickets is 120 days, ticket bookings for April 15 and beyond were made open much prior to the lockdown period," it clarified. 

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing the 21-day lockdown, the India Railways announced that it would be suspending all passenger travel till April 14. The refund procedure for tickets booked by all passengers during the said period has already been underway. 

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on April 1 asked the railways to make supply services available on more routes for quick transportation of medicines, essential equipment, and foodstuff. Notably, around 9,000 goods trains are operating despite the lockdown on passenger trains.

Meanwhile, the railways is also further fine-tuning its plans to offer 20,000 coaches converted into isolation wards for coronavirus patients. These coaches can accommodate up to 3.2 lakh possible beds.

It has also earmarked targets for its 16 zones, with the South Central Railways headquartered at Secunderabad in Telangana leading the pack with 486 coaches being allocated for conversion, followed by Mumbai headquartered Central Railway being allocated 482 coaches.