Indian Railways to start 80 new special trains in addition to 230 trains: Full list inside

The Indian Railways is set to run 80 more special trains from Saturday onwards, for which the bookings started from September 10. These 80 trains will run in addition to the 230 trains already in operation according to Railway Board chairperson VK Yadav. He had said the trains will operate whenever there is a demand from states for examinations or other such purposes.

"The Ministry of Railways in consultation with Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) has decided to run 40 pairs (80trains) of more special trains from 12th September 2020," a release from the Railway Minister said.

Here is complete list of 80 trains below:

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Introduction of Clone train concept

Indian Railways has also announced that it will introduce the concept of 'clone train' to ferry waitlisted passengers. A clone train will be an alternate train deployed by the Railways to ferry the passengers having a waitlisted ticket to their destinations. The clone train will run only when there is a substantial number of passengers on the waiting list for a particular train and only the waitlisted passengers will be accommodated in the clone train.

The clone train will bear the same number as the original train but will stop at fewer number stations than the original train. It will only stop at major stations, pertaining to bookings for those key major stations.

The clones will most likely be 3AC trains and will run ahead of the original train. This concept will likely be introduced in 10 to 15 days and Railways has said it will issue a notification in this regard.

"Wherever there is a demand for a particular train, wherever the waiting list is long, we will run a clone train ahead of the actual train so that passengers can travel. Railways will monitor all the trains that are currently in operation to determine which trains have a long waiting list,” VK Yadav had said in a press conference.

The clone train is a concept similar to the Vikalp scheme, under which waitlisted passengers are accommodated in another train on the same route, regardless of booking quota and concession. However, under Vikalp scheme, a nearby boarding and destination stations may be allotted to the passengers instead of the original boarding and destination stations.

(Image credits: PTI)

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