New Delhi, May 11: The Indian Railways has announced that it will gradually restart special AC passenger train operations from May 12. Services have been suspended since March 25 when a nationwide lockdown was announced. In the first phase, the Indian Railways will run 15 trains with online booking of tickets starting from Monday evening. Those who are in Delhi can book tickets online through IRCTC official website (irctc.co.in) for Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi. Full List of Train Routes to Resume on May 12 as Indian Railways Set to Partially Restart Booking of Tickets for Passengers.

How to Book Train Tickets Through IRCTC?

  • Booking for reservation on the above-mentioned special trains will start at 4 pm this evening.

  • Log in to your IRCTC account through your registered user ID, password.

  • The "Book your ticket" page appears.

  • Enter your origin and destination stations under the From-To option, date of journey and preferred class for travel.

  • To find the list of trains, go to the ‘Find trains’ option.

  • After selecting a train, click on the type of class available on the train.

  • To get the availability and fare, click on the "Check availability and fare" tab.

  • To book the ticket on the selected train, click on "Book now".

  • For booking the return journey, users can click on "Book Return/Onward Ticket".

  • Enter the names of passengers, age, gender, berth preference and food preference for each passenger.

  • If you want a different boarding station, click on "Change Boarding Station".

  • After filing the correct details, click on "Continue Booking" for the payment process.

  • To make any changes, users can click on "Replan Booking".

  • Users can pay using credit cards, net banking, payment wallets and multiple payment services etc.

  • After successful payment and booking, the ticket confirmation page is displayed.

  • You will receive e-ticket on e-mail and via SMS.

  • Passenger can also print the Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS) using the Print Ticket option.

Here it may be noted that ticket booking counters at the railway stations will not open and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) will be issued from railways stations. Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations. It will be mandatory for the passengers to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train.

The Indian Railways also said that it will run more trains based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centres and an adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains every day as "Shramik Special" for migrants who are stranded because of the lockdown.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 11, 2020 08:34 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).