New Delhi, Jun 26 (IANS): The Indian Railways on Thursday announced cancellation of all regular trains till August 12, but said that special trains will continue to operate.

The development comes in the backdrop of a surge in Covid-19 cases across the country.

In a notification, the Railway Board said that tickets booked for the regular time-tabled trains for journey dates from July 1 to August 12 stand cancelled.

It added, "It has been decided that regular time-tabled passenger services including Mail or Express, passenger and suburban services stand cancelled up to 12.08.2020."

The Railway Board, however, added that "all special Rajdhani, mail and express trains that started operating from May 12 and June 1, however, will continue to operate."

A Railway spokesperson said, "We have only enabled refunds for trains which are not being operated and for which tickets have been booked prior to lock down and up to 14.04.2020."

"No trains which are presently operational have been cancelled. Special Trains will continue to run. As far as running of more trains are concerned, all will be informed and bookings will be done, as and when a decision is taken about them. There is no blanket order ruling out running of more trains till 12th August," the spokesperson added.

On Tuesday, the Railways had announced to cancel all train tickets booked for regular trains on or prior to April 14 and said that refunds will be generated for the same.

The Railways had suspended the operation of all passenger, mail and express trains from March 25 amid the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus.

On May 14, the Railways had cancelled all regular train tickets booked for travel till June 30.

The Railways had introduced Shramik Special trains from May 1 to transport stranded migrant workers, pilgrims, students and tourists.

It then launched 15 pairs of Special AC trains from May 12 and 200 time-tabled trains from June 1.