The South Eastern Railway on Friday issued a fresh Standard Operating Procedure for passengers amid the growing cases of Covid-19 across the country.

The fresh guidelines issued by Garden Reach, the Calcutta-based headquarters of South Eastern Railway said that onboard booking by ticket checking staff of a waiting list ticket will not be permitted.

Moreover, unreserved tickets shall be permitted on limited trains only on which such unreserved journey has been permitted.

Pre-paid catering services in trains have been disabled. No catering charges will be included in the fare. However, ready-to-eat meals, packed items, packaged drinking water bottles, tea, coffee, beverages etc. shall be made available to passengers in trains on payment basis through pantry cars.

Provision of catering services in trains shall be subject to compliance of all safety and hygiene protocols issued from time to time.

No Linen, blankets and curtains shall be provided during travelling.

Passengers have been advised to carry their own linen. The temperature inside AC coaches shall be suitably regulated for this purpose.

For the convenience of passengers, bedrolls would be available for purchase at all Multi Purpose Stalls.

Chief public relations officer of SER Sanjay Ghosh said that passengers with fully waitlisted tickets will not be allowed to enter the railway station.

"Passengers should use separate entry and exit gates at railway stations where such arrangements are made so that there is no face to face movement of passengers, "he said.

Passengers have been asked to carry sanitisers during the journey.

All passengers have been advised that on arrival at their destinations, they will have to adhere to health protocols prescribed by the destination state.

Passengers have been asked to arrive well before departure time of the train to avoid crowding for thermal scanning at the entry points.

According to the fresh SOP, it has been made mandatory for passengers to download and use the Aarogya Setu application.