Indian Railways has begun the process of reopening its reservation counters and bookings through the Common Service Centres and via ticketing agents from today, May 22.

The order to open these modes of booking was made on Thursday to Zonal Railways. It is left up to the Zonal Railways to decide and notify the opening of the counters in a phased manner. The Zonal Railways will also disseminate the information about the location and timings as per local needs and conditions, reports Zee News.

On May 21, Indian Railways had opened the booking process for 200 special trains that will start ferrying passengers from June 1. The booking for these trains currently can only be done online via IRCTC app or website.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday had said that the department is developing a protocol to identify the stations so that bookings can resumed at counters over the next couple of days.

The beginning of reservation via counters is another step in Indian Railways’ efforts to begin normalising its services in a graded manner. Indian Railways had stopped its operations since March 25 due to COVID-19 lockdown imposed throughout the country.

The month of May saw the beginning of Shramik Special for ferrying migrant daily wage workers. A set of 20 trains connecting New Delhi with various cities across India was begun from this month.