'Amid Omicron scare, railways would do due diligence before resuming providing bedrolls'

New Delhi: Amid the scare of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha on Friday that the national transporter would do due diligence before resuming providing bedrolls to passengers in trains.

The railways had last month restored some of its services that it had suspended in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. This included the removal of the "special" tag from trains which brought down the prices of tickets and restarted the service of serving hot cooked meals.

However, the decision on restoring concessions and providing bedrolls is still pending.

"We were to start providing bedrolls. But after the threat of Omicron, we have decided to take the step after doing due diligence. "This is not something on which we should take step in a haste. It is about the security of the nation. It is a question about the safety of everybody's health," Vaishnaw said in reply to a starred question in the Rajya Sabha. The minister informed the House that mail and express trains are running on normal fair. He said the price of platform ticket has also been normalised.