New Delhi: Over 80,000 passengers have booked tickets worth over Rs 16 crore on the special trains so far, the Indian Railways said on Tuesday, hours before the first such train is scheduled to depart from the New Delhi station for Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.

The bookings for these special trains began at 6 pm on Monday.

So far, 45,533 bookings (PNRs) worth Rs 16.15 crore have been recorded for the special trains for the next seven days, the railways said, adding that around 82,317 passengers will travel against these bookings.

The railways issued guidelines on Monday for 15 special trains, which will be operated from Tuesday, asking the passengers to carry their own food and linen, and arrive at stations at least 90 minutes before departure for a health screening.

On Tuesday, the national transporter said installing the Aarogya Setu mobile application was mandatory for the passengers.

The railways will run eight trains on Tuesday -- three from New Delhi terminating at Dibrugarh, Bengaluru and Bilaspur, and one each from Howrah, Rajendra Nagar (Patna), Bengaluru, Mumbai Central and Ahmedabad, which will terminate at Delhi.

These special trains will only have air-conditioned coaches.

Since the trains will be operated amidst the ongoing nationwide lockdown, only the passengers with confirmed e-tickets will be allowed to enter the stations.

The fares of these trains will be equivalent to that of the Rajdhani trains and passengers can book tickets up to seven days in advance. However, no RAC, wait-list ticket or on-board booking by the ticket-checking staff will be permitted, the railways said.

The national transporter had suspended its passenger services in view of the lockdown imposed to check the spread of coronavirus.

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Varanasi: Comedian Shyam Rangeela has finally filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate from the Varanasi parliamentary constituency on Tuesday, May 14, the last day of filing papers.

Rangeela, who intended to contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi had alleged on Monday that he was being denied a nomination from the seat, as he along with several other candidates were reportedly made to wait for filling papers on May 10th and May 13th.

Shyam Rangeela, taking to his official ‘X’ handle, wrote, "With your love and support, I have completed all the requirements as per the rules and submitted the nomination. I also have full faith in the democracy of this country. Now the next two-three days are crucial. Thank you all very much for your cooperation. My electoral future rests in the hands of all election officials who are the custodians of our democracy. With the hope that they all strengthen our faith, Yours Shyam Rangeela.”

Alongside, Shyam, BJP candidate Narendra Modi, Log Party's Vinay Kumar Tripathi, BJP's Surendra Narayan Singh, independent candidates Dinesh Kumar Yadav, Reena Rai, Neha Jaiswal, Ajit Kumar Jaiswal, Ashok Kumar Pandey, Sandeep Tripathi filed their nomination papers on Tuesday.

According to the Election Commision of India, a total of 41 candidates have filed nomination papers from the Varanasi constituency.