Indian Railways to provide full refund for all regular trains booked till April 14

In a significant development, Indian Railways on Tuesday announced that it has decided to give a full refund for tickets booked on or before April 14. Trains were cancelled across the country due to the lockdown that began on March 25 to contain the spread of Coronavirus. Later on May 16, the passenger train services resumed in the country.

Although there was a brief window provided to make train booking, the railways had cancelled all bookings made before May 14 other than those for 'Shramik Special Trains'. Indian Railways had introduced Shramik Special trains from May 1 to transport stranded migrant workers, pilgrims, students and tourists.

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Indian railways conducts recruitment exercise

In its bid to boost employment, Indian railways announced that they had conducted one of the world's largest recruitment exercises for 64,000 posts of Assistant Loco Pilots (ALPs) and technicians. According to an official release, the recruitment exercise which was conducted online by the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) saw applications from over 47.45 Lakhs candidates for the posts after which a panel approved 56,378 candidates with 26,968 ALPs and 28,410 technicians.

"The scheme of selection consisted of 3 -stages computer-based tests followed by medical examination (which is one of the stringent medical examinations considering the level of distant vision/colour vision and alertness required from a Loco Pilot) and document verification of shortlisted candidates," according to the Ministry of Railways.

Appointment letters have been issued to about 40,420 candidates comprising of 22,223 ALPs and 18,197 technicians post the exercise. Training for these critical operational posts would begin as soon as the Centre further eases relaxations with regards to COVID, informed the Ministry of Railways. 

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