Considering the heavy rush on specific routes the Ministry of Railways has decided to run 20 pairs (40 trains) of clone special trains from September 21, 2020. These Clone trains will run on notified timings and will be fully reserved trains. The stoppages shall be limited to operational halts. The advance reservation period (ARP) for these trains will be 10 days. Bookings in the clone special trains will start from September 19, 8 AM onwards.
The 19 pairs of clone special trains will run by utilising Humsafar Express rakes consisting of 18 coaches each while 1 pair 04251/04252 Lucknow-Delhi clone Special with 22 coaches will run as Jan Shatabdi Express. The fare of Humsafar train rake will be charged as per Humsafar Express trains and the fare for Janshatabdi rake will be charged as per Janshatabdi Express.
Some of the clone trains that will be operational from September 21 are train no. 09065 Surat Chhapra Clone COVID 19 Special will leave from its source station Surat (ST) at 08:30 and will reach Chhapra (CPR) at 14:30 next day. It will run on every Monday starting from September 21. Another train no. 06509 KSR Bengaluru Danapur Clone COVID 19 Special will leave from its source station Bengaluru City (SBC) at 08:00 and will reach Danapur (DNR) at 08:05 on the third day. It will run on every Monday starting from September 21. These clone trains will run ahead of the actual trains so that passengers have no problem in travelling. Here is the complete list of clone special trains that are scheduled to run from September 21 onwards:
Clone train will run in addition to the fully air-conditioned rajdhani-like 30 COVID-19 special trains, 200 special trains and 80 new special trains that are already being run. The development comes days after Indian Railways announced a clone train scheme to provide relief to the waitlisted passengers on the routes with high passenger traffic.
Indian railways had suspended all passenger trains services due to the imposition of a nationwide lockdown from 25 March. However it resumed services in a staggered manner with shramik special trains to help stranded migrant workers reach their home states from 1 May.
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