Srinagar: After remaining suspended for almost a year now, the Railway official on Thursday said that the trains will start to chug on tracks across valley once government will set Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) pertaining to Covid and other related issues.
Chief Manager Railways Saqib Yusuf said that they are waiting for governments nod to resume train service across Kashmir valley. He said in view of Covid19 pandemic, the services were “temporarily” suspended across Jammu and Kashmir. “We are hopeful that Government will come up with SOPs soon so that the service to be resumed.”
He said after August 2019 the services were resumed in November 2019 till March 2020. “However after Covid-19 outbreak across J&K, the authorities again suspended the services temporarily across J&K”, Chief Manager Railways said.
It is pertinent to mention that in mid of March 2019; the authorities suspended the services across Kashmir after Covid-19 hit Jammu and Kashmir.
Besides train services, authorities issued prohibitory orders to several department however essential services were exempted from the list.
To a query, the Chief Manager admitted that due to long spell of closure of rail services across J&K, the Railways has suffered huge losses but cited it “mandatory” for wellbeing of people.
According to sources, the Railways in Kashmir have suffered huge losses due to continuous temporary closure since March 2020. “The department suffered 40-50 lakh per month of losses in valley since March 2020”, another official told.