As Indian Railwaysresumed ticket booking on Monday (May 11, 2020) it sold tickets worth Rs10 crore to 54,000 passengers within hours of opening the portal. TheIndian railway has allotted 30 special trains as it resmes operation afteralmost two months due to thecoronavirus scare.

The IRCTC websitebegan booking tickets for travel on special trains after 6 pm, two hours behindthe schedule due to a technical glitch but all AC-1 and AC-3 tickets for theHowrah-New Delhi train were sold within the first 10 minutes.

Fifteen pairs ofspecial trains will be carrying passengers from one destination to another. Thetrains will run from New Delhi railway station to other cities includingMumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai. The India Railways also issued new guidelinesfor traveling on these special trains from Tuesday (May 12), asking passengersto carry their own food and linen and arrive at stations at least 90 minutesbefore departure for health screening.

According to thetimetable issued by the Railways, the trains will run either daily, weekly orbi-weekly from May 12 to 20 as of now. There are no trains scheduled on May 16and May 19.

Bookings will beavailable only on the IRCTC official website and no booking can be done through'agents'-both IRCTC agents and Railway Agents.