Shares of Indian Railway Catering And Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) jumped 5 per cent during the intraday trade on Tuesday as the Indian Railways is all set to resume its operations from today onwards.
The company’s shares gained 5 per cent to Rs 1,367.95, up by 5 per cent or Rs 65.10, its highest trading permissible limit for the day on the BSE.
At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), it rose to 5 per cent or Rs 65.15 to Rs 1,368.70, its upper circuit limit.
Online booking for reservation in these trains started on Monday at 6 pm on May 11 and initially, the all air-conditioned services will begin on 15 Rajdhani routes and the fare would be equivalent to that of the super-fast train. These trains will connect Delhi to Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.
“Thereafter, Indian Railways shall start more special services on new routes,” the government has said in a statement.
Indian rail network is among the world’s largest in the world and carries more than 20 million people across regions in one day. In fact, it is the lifeline for many people living far fetched corners of the country.
All AC-1 and AC-3 tickets for the Howrah-New Delhi train were sold within the first 10 minutes and all seats were reserved in 20 minutes, PTI quoted IRCTC as saying.
The Howrah-New Delhi train is scheduled to begin its journey from Howrah at 5:05 pm on Tuesday. All AC-1 and AC-3 tickets for the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi special trains were also sold by 6.30 pm.
All passenger services were suspended due to a lockdown announced on March 25 and the railways later started the on-demand Shramik Specials to ferry migrants stranded across the country. It, however, has been running freight and parcel services.