The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) on Wednesday, April 7 announced that the services of Lucknow-New Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express would be suspended till the end of the month, April 30 starting from Friday, April 9. The decision has been taken keeping in mind the surge in Covid-19 cases in the country. The New Delhi to Lucknow Tejas Express was being run four days a week on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

IRCTC said in a regulatory filing, "It is to be informed that due to recent increase in corona cases, IRCTC Lucknow- New Delhi Tejas Express (Train No. 82501-O2) is being temporarily suspended from 9th April to 30th April2021. The situation is being monitored continuously and action to re-operate the train will be taken accordingly."

IRCTC, which is an undertaking of the Indian Railways, has already halted the operations of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas Express from April 2. The announcement for the same was made on its Twitter handle. It also said that IRCTC decided to temporarily suspend ADI-BCT-ADI Tejas Express because of the hike in covid cases.

The services of the Mumbai Central-Ahmedabad Tejas Express was resumed by the railway authorities from February 14 this year and was operated four days a week. The services of this train were cancelled from November 24, 2020, after resuming its operations in October due to poor occupancy levels, owing to the Coronavirus pandemic.

It is worth mentioning that both the Tejas Express services are the first set of trains that are being run by a corporate entity, IRCTC.

According to the latest data, India has reported 1,26,789 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, which is the highest number so far. The country has also recorded 685 related deaths. Total Covid-19 positive cases in the nation now stand at 1,29,28,574, out of which 8,43,473 are active cases.