Railways has asked passengers to install the Aarogya Setu mobile application, as it is now "mandatory" for travel by train. "Indian Railways is going to start few passenger trains services. It is mandatory for passengers to download Aarogya Setu app in their mobile phones, before commencing their journey," Ministry of Railways said in a tweet.
While the guidelines issued by the railways for the 15 pairs of special trains running between Delhi and major cities of the country did not say installing the mobile app was mandatory, a late night tweet by the railway ministry made it compulsory.
Sources said it was made mandatory after a Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) missive, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with chief ministers, news agency PTI reported.
Passengers, who do not have the app installed on their mobile phones, might be asked to do so after their arrival at the station, they added.
The Aarogya Setu app has been installed on 9.8 crore smartphones so far and is used by the government for contact-tracing to contain the spread of Covid-19.
From today, 15 special trains would be operated on select routes. The train journey that will begin nearly two months after the Covid-19-induced lockdown will be completely different. The railways have issued certain guidelines reagrding the same"
1) All the passengers have to arrive at the railway station 90 minutes prior to the departure of the train
2) Thermal screening of passengers will be done before they will be allowed to enter the station premises.
3) Wearing masks has been made mandatory.
4) Passengers have been encouraged to carry their own blankets, water and food for the travel.
5) The temperatures will be kept slightly higher than the usual inside the air-conditioning coaches.
6) There will be separate entry and exit gates at stations to avoid any face-to-face movement or contact of passengers.
These trains will run between New Delhi and all major cities across the country: Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.
Catch all the Business News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.