Four divisions of Indian Railways including the Delhi division have reported 100 per cent punctuality of special trains.

IRCTC special trains: Amidst COVID-19 crisis, Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways has been working on ensuring punctuality of its 230 IRCTC special trains. Recently, four divisions of Indian Railways including the Delhi division have reported 100 per cent punctuality of special trains that are being run by the national transporter during this COVID-19 pandemic crisis. According to railway ministry officials, all 88 special train services terminating in the Delhi division ran on time. Besides the Delhi division, the other three railway divisions that reported 100 per cent punctuality of special trains were Agra division, Jhansi division and Prayagraj division. These rail divisions fall under the North Central Railway Zone. Interestingly, today, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal also announced that yesterday i.e., 22 June 2020, Indian Railways recorded the highest ever punctuality rate at 98 per cent across its network.

Earlier this month, the Chairman of the Railway Board, V K Yadav had directed all zonal heads to ensure 100 per cent punctuality in the running of 230 special train services. It was reported that the national transporter had received criticism for delays in running these special train services. It is being said that the punctuality of special trains was a matter of concern for Indian Railways since the number of trains that are currently being run is less than 2 per cent of the 13,000 trains which are normally run on the country’s rail network.

A few days ago, Yadav had asked seven zonal railways- East Central Railway, Central Railway, East Coast Railway, South East Central Railway, West Central Railway, Northern Railway and North Central Railway, to identify the issues that were causing train delays and take remedial steps. Reportedly, these seven are the zones, in which most of the loading of freight trains take place and on which, most of the freight trains are operated. According to sources quoted in a PTI report, some of the reasons for train delays were thermal screening of passengers, following social distancing norms, ensuring Aarogya Setu mobile app is downloaded on phones, etc.