IRCTC Lucknow-Delhi and Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas Express services to be suspended; details

IRCTC Tejas Express: The first two corporate trains to run on the Indian Railways network- IRCTC Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas Express and IRCTC Mumbai-Ahmedabad Tejas Express train services to be suspended again. Recently, the official e-ticketing and catering arm of the national transporter, Indian Railway Catering And Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) has decided to cancel the operations of both Mumbai-Ahmedabad Tejas Express and Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express trains, due to low occupancy. According to various media reports, the IRCTC Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas Express train will remain suspended from 23 November 2020 and the IRCTC Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas Express train will remain suspended from 24 November 2020.

Last month, IRCTC had resumed the first set of Tejas Express train services. Both, IRCTC Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas Express and IRCTC Mumbai-Ahmedabad Tejas Express train services were suspended in the month of March due to the COVID-19 outbreak. For passengers to maintain social distancing, every alternate seat on these two Tejas Express trains are kept vacant. Also, passengers of IRCTC Tejas Express trains before entering the coach are thermally screened and once seated, they are not allowed to exchange their seats. Moreover, a “COVID-19 protection kit” is given to every IRCTC Tejas Express passenger, which contains a hand sanitizer bottle, one face mask, one face shield, and a pair of gloves.

Earlier, IRCTC had said that an extensive training programme has been conducted for Tejas Express employees’ team in order to educate and train them to manage train operations and provide services, ensuring passengers’ safety. The IRCTC Lucknow-Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express train service was started on 4 October 2019, and the IRCTC Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Ahmedabad Tejas Express train service was started on 19 January this year. Both these IRCTC Lucknow-New Delhi and Mumbai-Ahmedabad Tejas Express trains, on their launch, have been received very well by railway passengers for their punctuality as well as service quality.