The Indian Railway Catering And Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) decided to cancel the operations of both its private Tejas Express trains - Lucknow-Delhi and Mumbai-Ahmedabad. The decision has been taken in the wake of low occupancy on both trains since the resumption of these trains. According to the IRCTC, the Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas Express will remain cancelled from November 23 and Ahmedabad-Mumbai will remain cancelled from November 24. 

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“The management has decided to cancel all departures of IRCTC Tejas trains due to low occupancy levels resulting from coronavirus(Covid-19) pandemic. The company will review its decision after seeing the occupancy level of other trains of Indian Railways operating in both these routes,” IRCTC said in a statement.  

The services on both the mentioned trains were restarted last month after the earlier suspension on March 19 due to Covid-19 pandemic. The two train services are the first commercially-run trains by Indian Railways subsidiary IRCTC. 

Several guidelines were issued for passengers to ensure that they remain safe.  

The IRCTC has also held an extensive training programme to educate and train its team of employees of Tejas Trains to manage the operations of the trains and provide services. The bookings for the trains were opened on the e-ticketing website of IRCTC www.irctc.co.in and IRCTC Rail Connect App shortly. 

After Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express, the second premium Tejas train was started between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The inaugural run of the second Tejas train was flagged off from Ahmedabad on January 17, 2020. The commercial run of the train started from January 19, 2020, from Ahmedabad. 

When the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Tejas Express resumed operations from October 17, only 25 to 40 per cent out of the total 736 seats were occupied as against 50-80 per cent before the spread of coronavirus.