Coronavirus lockdown | Western Railways suffers Rs 1,784 crore loss

The Mumbai division, which is also the headquarters of the Western Railways, has ensured a refund of ₹190.20 crore till July 16.

Moneycontrol News

July 20, 2020 / 09:03 IST

The novel coronavirus outbreak has caused Rs 1,784 crore loss to the Western Railways. The figure includes approximately Rs 263 crores for suburban section and approximately Rs 1,521 crores for non-suburban section, said Sumit Thakur, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Western Railways.

The Western Railways has refunded Rs 398.01 crores to 61.15 lakhs passengers due to the cancellation of tickets from March 1 to July 16 in 2020, LiveMint reported. The Mumbai division, the headquarters of the Western Railways, has ensured a refund of Rs 190.20 crores during this period, Thakur said.

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The nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19 led to a temporary halt on the plying of trains from March 25. Indian Railways had started plying Shramik Special trains from May 1 to send migrant labourers back to their native states. Indian Railways said that it had transported over 50 lakh migrants to various parts of the country through special Shramik trains.

From May 12, Railways started operating fifteen pairs of special trains for general passengers. Although there is a partial resumption of train services, occupancy is low due to COVID-19 threat.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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