Lok Sabha Question No. 625 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-16
Subject: Shramik Special Trains
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Raja Amareshwara Naik, Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo, Bhola Singh, Vinod Kumar Sonkar, Sukanta Majumdar, Jayanta Kumar Roy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.625

TO BE ANSWERED ON 16.09.2020

## SHARMIK SPECIAL TRAINS

## 625.   SHRI RAJA AMARESHWARA NAIK:

SHRI VINOD KUMAR SONKAR:

SHRI BHOLA SINGH:

SHRIMATI SANGEETA KUMARI SINGH DEO:

DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR:

DR. JAYANTA KUMAR ROY

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  run  special  trains  for  journey  of migrants in the country;
- (b)
- if so , the details thereof;
- (c) whether finances of Railways has been severely affected due to lockdown;
- (d)
- if so, the details thereof;
- (e) whether  IRCTC  has  refunded  amount  of  tickets  of  passengers which were cancelled by Railways during lockdown;
- (f)
- if so, the details thereof and pending amount so far;
- (g) whether  there  have  been  complaints  of  non-refund  of  cancelled tickets by IRCTC, if so, the details of complaint resolution mechanism and action taken thereon; and
- (h) the  initiatives/steps  being  taken  by  the  Government  for  normal operation of trains in the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a) & (b) Yes, Sir. Keeping in view the urgent requirement of movement of  stranded  persons,  Shramik  specials  were  organized  in  a  mission mode.  These Shramik specials were organized as trains on demand as and  when  State  Governments  requisition  these  trains  in  accordance with the protocol and guidelines given by the Government.  In all, 4621

Shramik  Special  have  been  operated  between  1 st   May,  2020  to  31 st August, 2020 carrying 63.19 Lakh passengers to their home State.

(c)  &(d) Owing to the discontinuance of passenger services after the introduction of the lockdown to contain COVID-19 pandemic, upto the end of August, the number of originating passengers has been 1.27% of  the  corresponding  period  last  year  and  freight  loading  has  been 86.6% of the corresponding period. Consequently, the traffic revenue of  Railways'  to  the  end  of  August  2020,  at ₹ 41,844.31  Crore  has declined by 42.3% over the corresponding period last year.

(e) & (f): Yes, Sir. The details of amount refunded and that pending from 22.03.2020 to 30.06.2020 is as under:-

- i. Number of refund cases:-    1,77,59,579

- ii. Refunded amount :- ₹ 2381.03 Crore

iii. Number of pending cases due to Customer Account closed :-   855

- iv. Amount to be refunded :- ₹

10.07 lakh

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has a proper mechanism to contact the customers through their registered email ID when refund is pending due to closing of bank account from which payment was made for the ticket. In such cases, customers are requested to provide their new bank details to process the refund and on receipt of these details, the amount is transferred.

(g) IRCTC is currently running Customer Care Centre 24 x 7 x 365 to address customers's enquiries through phone and E-mails. Apart from this,  it  is  also  handling  customer  grievances  that  are  received  from other sources such as:- Rail Madad of Ministry of Railways, CPGRAM portal of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, INGRAM portal of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and other grievances received from different sources.

(h)  Train  services  are  being  gradually  started,  in  phases,  as  special trains, as detailed below:-

- i. 15 pairs of Rajdhani specials were introduced with effect from 12.05.2020.
- ii. 100  pairs  of  Special  trains  were  introduced  with  effect  from 01.06.2020.
- iii. 43 pairs of special trains were started from 12.09.2020.
- iv. 705 Suburban services (Central Railway-355 & Western Railway350) were started from 15.06.2020.

Additional Special trains, in coordination with the State Governments, were also run as per demand for Ganapati festival, and IIT-JEE/NEET and NDA & Naval Academy examinations conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

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