New Delhi, Jul 2 (IANS): The Indian Railways, here on Thursday, claimed to have achieved 100 per cent punctuality of trains -- first time in its history.

Last month, the railways had asked all zones to ensure 100 per cent punctuality in the running of 230 special trains, which is less than 2 per cent of the 13,000 trains that normally run on the entire network.

A Railway Ministry official said for the first time in the history of Indian Railways, the 100 per cent punctuality of trains had been achieved. "The previous best was 99.54 per cent on June 23, with one train getting delayed," the official said.

Earlier, Railway Board Chairman V.K. Yadav had told the general managers, divisional railway managers and all zones to ensure that the 15 pairs of Rajdhani special trains and 100 pairs of passenger trains maintained schedule.

On March 25, the railways suspended operation of passenger, mail and express trains amid the nationwide lockdown to combat spread of Covid-19.

However, from May 1 it started to run Shramik special trains to ferry the stranded workers, students, tourists and pilgrims. Then on May 12, it started 15 pairs of special AC trains and on June 1, 200 time-tabled special trains.

The railways is also preparing to upgrade the train speed up to 130 km per hour on two routes, from Delhi to Mumbai and from Delhi to Howrah.