Amid the speculations on the road ahead for India after the deadline of the current lockdown, the Indian Railways has announced that it will be operating four special passenger trains in Tamil Nadu from June 1st.

These special trains will be connecting seven major cities of the state as these trains have become the first phase of the resumption of Railway services in Tamil Nadu, which has been remaining suspended for the past two months in the wake of the lockdown.

According to the reports, these special trains are additional to the Shramik special trains that are already running in the state to ferry the stranded migrant workers. These four special trains would be plying between Coimbatore-Mayiladuthurai, Madurai- Villupuram, Trichy- Nagercoil, and Coimbatore -Katpadi respectively from June 1st. 

The green signal for the resumption of four trains has come days after Tamil Nadu government has asked the Railway Board to operate four non-A/C special trains in the state at the same time when it would be resuming 200 passenger train services across the country and the government has disclosed these four initial routes to kickstart the railway services in the state as part of the gradual exit from the lockdown.

The government has asked the board on May 23 in which it has excluded Chennai from its list as the city has been witnessing the sharpest rise in the COVID-19 cases and after considering the request from the government, it has permitted four special passenger trains to ply in the state. When the Indian Railways has announced the resumption of 200 trains across India, it has consented no train services to Tamil Nadu. 

According to the Railway Board, the ticket bookings for these four special trains in Tamil Nadu would begin on May 30 -Saturday from 4 pm. The initial re-commencement of the country's most important transportation channel would play a larger and crucial role in the government's upcoming approach and strategies on imposing lockdown and restrictions and containing the spread. The current lockdown comes to an end by May 31st following which the Tamil Nadu government would likely consent inter-district travels in selected areas and the areas that are not designated as containment zones. 

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