In order to contain the spread of coronavirus, the management of Pakistan Railways has announced the closure of all passenger trains across the country till March 31. However, operations of freight trains will not be curtailed, reads the notification issued by Ministry of Railways on Tuesday.
According to the notification released by Ministry of Railways, the train service will remain suspended from Wednesday (today) till March 31. The Railways authorities have said that those who booked their advance tickets from the reservation counters should contact the ministry for refund. It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan Railways earlier announced to reduce operations due to coronavirus pandemic and suspended 40 passengers trains for up and down tracks from March 25. In a video message, the Railways minister said more 24 trains have been suspended in view of the increasing number of cases of COVID-19 across the country.
He added that overall 34 out of 134 trains were halted for travel operations. It may be mentioned here that the Sindh government also requested the federal government to suspend train services in the province. The Sindh government said that they will contact the Centre to stop people arriving in the province through trains.