Indian Railways passengers take note! With Indian Railways resuming partial passenger train services amid lockdown, Piyush Goyal chaired Railway Ministry has made it “mandatory” for passengers to download the Aarogya Setu mobile app in their mobile phones. From today, as many as 15 passenger train services have been started, with the special trains departing from the New Delhi railway station (NDLS). With passengers travelling during the lockdown period, Piyush Goyal chaired Railway Ministry is ensuring suitable measures to prevent the deadly COVID-19 infection from spreading. The ministry in a tweet stated that it is mandatory for passengers to download Aarogya Setu mobile application in their phones, before commencing their train journey.

With Aarogya Setu mobile app, the Modi government aims to keep everyone safe and alert about COVID-19 pandemic. The mobile app connects essential health services with the public in the government’s combined fight against novel coronavirus outbreak. The Aarogya Setu mobile app tracks a person’s interaction with someone who could have tested positive of novel coronavirus through a Bluetooth and GPS generated social graph. With this app, a person is alerted if they are in close proximity to a COVID-19 positive patient. Moreover, the app also gives instructions on how to self-isolate as well as what to do if someone develops coronavirus symptoms.

To get alerts on COVID-19, a person needs to install the Aarogya Setu mobile application on his/her mobile phone. After installing the app, switch on Bluetooth and GPS. Then, set the location sharing to ‘Always’.

From today, the 15 special trains will run to various destinations across the country including Mumbai Central, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ranchi, Patna, Agartala, Jammu Tawi, Howrah, Ahmedabad, Bilaspur, Thiruvananthapuram, Dibrugarh, and Madgaon. However, the tickets for these special passenger train services can be booked only through the official IRCTC web portal or through the IRCTC mobile app.