NEW DELHI: The Railways on Friday said that it was monitoring the occupancy of special trains and will shortly operate more trains depending on the COVID-19 situation.
“We are keeping a watch on occupancy of the special trains. Very soon we will begin more special trains depending on demand from states, occupancy and the COVID situation,” Railway Board chairman VK Yadav said.
Yadav said it was heartening to see that the occupancy of trains originating from UP and Bihar has been on the rise.
“This indicates more and more economic activities are opening up.” The railways has identified 160 projects for returnee migrants which will generate around 9 lakh man-days of work under the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan in 116 district covering six states, Yadav said.
On isolation coaches, he said the railways was spending Rs 2 lakh per coach for maintenance. “This was the budgetary estimate of the railways for the 5,213 coaches that have been modified as isolation coaches and the money has already been received from the central COVID care fund,” he said.