DIPHU

                           The following additional proactive measures have been taken by the Indian Railways in wake of COVID-19:

1.To discourage unnecessary travel and to prevent the vulnerable category of Senior Citizens from undertaking unnecessary travels, concessional booking of all tickets except Patients, students and Divyangjan category for Unreserved & Reserved segment are being suspended form 00:00 hrs of 20th March till further advisory.

2.As a precautionary measure and to discourage nonessential travel and overcrowding of trains, so far total 155 pairs of low occupancy trains are cancelled up to 31.03.20. NFR has also cancelled 16 pairs of trains with low occupancy(less than 30%). Trains are cancelled keeping in view the availability of alternate trains for passengers and ensuring that no passenger shall remain stranded. Full refund is being given to all the passengers whose train has been cancelled.

3.Indian Railways has also facilitated return of students stranded in Northern part of country due to sudden closure of Educational Institutions to their homes in Southern, North-Eastern and Eastern regions of India.

4.Advisories are being issued to passengers to avoid non-essential train journeys and to ensure that they do not have running fever while they are commencing the journey. At any point of journey if passenger feels that he is having fever, he can contact the Railway Staff for medical attention and further assistance.

5.To avoid unnecessary crowding at Railway Stations in wake of spread of COVID 19, it has been decided to raise the price of Platform Ticket wherever necessary. In NFR platform ticket prices of the following stations have been changed Rs. 50/- viz. Guwahati, Kamakhya, Dimapur, Lumding, Silchar, Rangiya, New Bongaigaon, Barpeta Road, Tinsukia, New Tinsukia, Dibrugarh Town, Dibrugarh, Simaluguri Jn., Mariani Jn., Jorhat Town and all station under Katihar division. Simmilarly price of platform tickets increased to Rs. 30/- in Agartala, Badarpur Jn., Bokajan, Chaparmukh Jn., Dharmanagar, Diphu, Hojai, Jagiroad, Karimganj Jn., Lanka and Sarupathar stations.

6.Regular Announcement are being done o­n PA System of Railway Stations & Trains to sensitize the public about various Do’s & Don’ts highlighting :

a)Keeping hands clean by frequent washing of hands;

b)Maintain social distance & covering the mouth while sneezing and coughing;

c)Precautions to be taken if o­ne has running fever-(don’t travel and report immediately to the Doctor);

d)Not spitting anywhere in the public place and Railway premises and

e)Avoid overcrowding & to ensure distancing between passengers in trains including local passenger trains.

45 (Forty five) railway stations of N.F. Railway have been provided with free Wi-Fi services for passenger till now. These includes A1 category stations like  Guwahati, New Jalpaiguri; A category stations like Katihar, New Alipuduar, Siliguri, New Coochbehar, Lumding, Silchar, Kishanganj, Rangiya, etc; B category stations like Kokrajhar, Agartala, Mariani, New Tinsukia, Dibrugarh etc; apart from various other stations like Chaparmukh, Lanka, Falakata, Jirania, Darjeeling, Ghum, Udaipur, Naharlagun etc.

Free Wi-Fi services in railway stations were planned with an aim to bring connectivity to millions of un-connected Indians. Indian Railway planned to provide free Wi-Fi services by using its optical fibre network spreading all over the country. In this connection Indian Railways had signed a MoU with Google in December, 2015 to launch the service, which offers thirty minutes of free internet access. After launching its first free Wi-Fi service at Mumbai Central station in January 2016, today 721 Railway stations of Indian Railway are having the free Wi-Fi service. Indian Railway subsidiary company RailTel is implementing the project in cooperation with Google throughout the country. RailTel also planned to introduce the free Wi-Fi service to 14 more stations like Hojai, New Bongaigaon, Diphu, Jalpaiguri, Samsi, Araria Court, Dhupguri etc within March this year. Remaining 351 stations of N.F. Railway will also to be provided in a planned way.