In view of the spurt in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country, Indian Railways on Thursday cancelled all regular mail, express, passenger and suburban services till August 12.

All tickets booked for regular time-tabled trains for journey between July 1 and August 12 stood cancelled, the Railway Board order said Thursday. Passengers would get a full refund, the order added.However, all special trains – 15 pairs (30) running on the Rajdhani routes from May 12 and another 100 pairs running since June 1 – would continue to operate.

The limited special suburban services which recently started in Mumbai to ferry essential services personnel identified by the local authorities would also continue, officials said.

According to a source, the decision to cancel trains was taken keeping in mind the rising number of coronavirus cases in the country.

“All tickets booked for the regular time-tabled trains for journey date from 01.07.20 to 12.08.20 also stand cancelled. Full refund will be generated,” the Railway Board order stated. Earlier, the Railways had cancelled all trains till June 30.

The Indian Railways had resumed its limited services to run at full capacity on May 12 after a hiatus of nearly two months after all the trains were cancelled due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

On June 1, in the second phase of graded resumption of passenger train operations, it pushed into service 100 more trains, including 17 Jan Shatabdis, five Durontos and a number of traditionally popular mail or express trains to various parts of India.