Delhi: Palpable excitement as railway services resume; Hazrat Nizamuddin open for business

After months of lockdown which brought the entire nation to a grinding halt, the resumption of passenger train operations kicked off from Monday. These trains are running in addition to the special passenger trains plying on Rajdhani routes and 'Shramik' trains which have ferried a close to 52 lakh migrants to their destinations. Ticket bookings started at 10 am on May 21. It can be booked online via IRCTC website and also from ticket counters. Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station which is one of the prominent stations in the national capital has only one train scheduled at 12:30 am which took off from the platform at 1:15 pm.

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Hygiene norms followed

Sanjay Ghosh, the Nizamuddin station director who himself took the task of checking the temperature of passengers said, "We have been constantly conducting thermal screening for all our passengers. We are ensuring that all the social distancing norms have been taken care off too. We have implemented the odd-even scheme in the sitting area of the platforms. People are only allowed to sit alternatively on the benches installed at the station. The entire station gets sanitized multiple times. Only passengers with confirmed tickets are allowed to enter the station. We are checking their temperature at the entry gate so that only symptomatic passengers can be filtered out at the entrance."

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Other measures

Apprising of the security measures, Ghosh said that the movement of non-travelling people who come to drop the passengers at the station is also monitored by the RPF personnel who maintain a close vigil and promote discipline across the station. The railway station is also providing wheelchairs to passengers above the age of 65.

"Also, people who have high temperatures will not be allowed the enter the station. Only after the designated medical team attends the passenger, he/she will be allowed to board the train. we have separate entry and exit points which has been guarded with multiple barricades. We have only opened the gate from the Bhogal market side, however, the gate near the Sarai Kale Khan is still shut," the official added.

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Highly motivated

He further said that his railway team is "highly motivated" after prime minister Narendra Modi called them front line warriors against Coronavirus in his address to the nation at Man Ki Baat on Sunday.

"We are highly motivated. We have come back with a new spirit. We also urge people to co-operate with us so that things can happen extremely smoothly." he opined upon asking about his excitement about the resumption of the operations nearly after two months.

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