Passengers booking tickets for the Rajdhani-type special trains and other trains that might be run in due course will have to first confirm that they are aware of the “quarantine protocol” of the states they are going to. Only then can they proceed to book the tickets. After 140 passengers of a special Rajdhani from Delhi to Bengaluru had to be hauled back earlier this week because they refused to go to institutional quarantine for 14 days, Indian Railways has decided to add this feature to its IRCTC website.
According to IRCTC officials, now, before finally proceeding to book a ticket, a pop-up will appear on the computer or mobile screen asking passengers to confirm if they had read the health advisory of the destination state and agree to abide by them.
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The message is available in both languages, Hindi and English. Apart from this, it also asks the passenger or IRCTC user to download the Aarogya Setu mobile app. It also asks the passenger to download the government”s contact-tracing app, Aarogya Setu.
This move became necessary because on 14 May, of the 543 passengers who arrived in Bengaluru by the special Rajdhani train from Delhi, 140 refused to agree to the Karnataka government’s quarantine rules.
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They were asked to check into a nearby hotel-turned-quarantine centre for 14 days on payment basis, sources said. Since they refused, these passengers became the responsibility of the Railways as the state government refused to let them get out of the station.
Railways then, as an emergency measure, attached an extra coach to the special Rajdhani that was due to leave for Delhi. “We have taken this decision to avoid such hassle again,” said a senior Railway official.
The official said that if the passenger selects disagree, then he won’t be able to book the ticket and will be returned to the reservation page.
On Sunday, Railways decided to run 15 pairs of Special Rajdhani trains for all of passengers beside Shramik specials for stranded labourers, pilgrims, students and others.
The special Rajdhanis are travelling to and from 15 major cities connecting Delhi.
More trains are slated to be introduced with non-AC classes as well, but the matter has not been finalised yet and Railways is also awaiting the Centre”s final guidelines for extension of lockdown which are due Sunday.
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