Indian Railways makes maximum use of Coronavirus-enforced lockdown; Piyush Goyal explains

While the entire nation is locked down at home to stop Coronavirus spread, Indian Railways is making maximum utilisation of this period. The Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal informed that the Indian Railways has scaled up its track maintenance efforts and said that it has deployed superior technology to check and maintain tracks. He said that the move will ensure uninterrupted train service in India post-lockdown with improved safety & operational efficiencies.

Piytush Goyal informed about the Indian Railways move through a tweet from his official Twitter handle that said, "Making optimum use of the COVID-19 lockdown period, Railways has upscaled the task of track maintenance. Ensuring uninterrupted train services, Indian Railways has deployed superior technology to check and maintain tracks." Piyush Goyal also tweeted a video showcasing the advanced technology being used by the Indian Railways during railway track maintenance during Coronavirus lockdown.

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The Indian Railways has stopped its train services till 17th May 2020 due to the lockdown extension. These days it's running only Shramik Special Trains to facilitate labourers who want to o to their native places. In this regard, Railway is executing Shramik Special Train Services in consultation with the state governments.

With route length of 95,981-kilometre as of March 2019, Indian Railways is the fourth largest railway network in the world in terms of size. Around 61.5 per cent of the entire railway track is electrified. On 31 March 2017, Indian Railways made a bold announcement that its entire rail network would be electrified by 2022 or 2023, and become a net-zero railway by 2030.

See Piyush Goyal tweet below:

Making optimum use of the COVID-19 lockdown period, Railways has upscaled the task of track maintenance.

Ensuring uninterrupted train services, Indian Railways has deployed superior technology to check and maintain tracks. pic.twitter.com/oUS5HdYMdU

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 5, 2020

On 22nd March 2020, Indian Railways announced a nationwide shutdown of passenger rail service to combat the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. This became part of a nationwide lockdown to Coronavirus spread. The Indian Railway shutdown was earlier scheduled to last from 23rd to 31st March but the nationwide lockdown, as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 March, was to last 21 days. The national rail network is maintaining its freight operations during the lockdown, to transport essential goods. On 29 March, Indian Railways announced that it would start service for special parcel trains to transport essential goods, in addition to regular freight service. The national rail operator has also announced plans to convert coaches into isolation wards for patients of COVID-19.