All passenger trains, inter-state buses suspended till March 31

All interstate buses passenger trains and metro services have been suspended across the country till March 31 while 75 districts where coronavirus cases were reported completely locked down as authorities undertook extraordinary measures to check the spread of the diseaseThe decisions were taken at a highlevel meeting of chief secretaries of all states and the cabinet secretary and the principal secretary to the prime minister officials said on SundayThe districts where lockdown was announced are from states that include Uttar Pradesh Maharashtra Punjab Karnataka Tamil Nadu and Kerala State governments will issue orders allowing only essential services to operate in these 75 districts with confirmed COVID19 cases or casualties a Union Home Ministry official saidThe officials stressed that these steps were vital to end the chain of transmissionIt was agreed that there was an urgent need to extend the restrictions on the movement of nonessential passenger transport including interstate transport buses till March 31 to contain the spread of the deadly COVID19 they saidIt was noted that several state governments have already issued orders in this regard All the chief secretaries informed that there was overwhelming and spontaneous response to the call for Janta curfew given by Prime Minister Narendra ModiThe state governments may expand the list depending on their assessment of the situationIn the meeting it was decided to suspend all train services till March 31 including suburban rail services However goods trains are exempted All metro rail services were also suspended till March 31 the officials saidThe railways announced suspension of all its 13523 passenger trains from March 22 midnight to March 31 midnight and said only goods trains will run during the said periodThe suspensions also include all suburban train servicesThe railways reported three incidents on Saturday where people asked to remain in quarantine were found travelling on trains Of those detected in the three instances 12 tested positive for COVID19The railways had already trimmed down its services on Friday by cancelling a majority of trains However it had allowed all trains that had already started the journey to continueNo train except goods trains will run till 2400 hrs of March 31 However a bare minimum of suburban services and the Kolkata Metro Rail service will continue to run till 2400 hours of March 22 Thereafter these services will also be stopped till 2400 hours of March 31 a spokesperson of the Indian Railways saidThe trains that had already commenced their journey prior to 4 am on March 22 will run up to their respective destinations the railways said adding that adequate arrangements would be made for the passengers during the travel and at their destinationsTo ensure the essential supplies in various parts of the country movement of goods trains will continue the Railway Ministry said in a statementIt added that passengers could claim a full refund for all trains cancelled in this period till June 21The railways has found some cases of coronavirusinfected passengers in trains which makes train travel risky Avoid train travel as you may also get infected if your copassenger has coronavirus Postpone all journeys and keep yourself and your family safe it saidThe total number of novel coronavirus cases in India rose to 341 while the death toll climbed to seven on SundayMillions of people across the country stayed indoors and streets wore a deserted look on Sunday following Prime Minister Narendra Modis appeal for a Janta curfew to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic which has claimed over 13000 lives worldwide