Secunderabad, Jan 24 (IANS): With no respite in the Covid situation, the South Central Railway (SCR) has decided to extend the cancellation of 55 trains by a week.

On Monday, the SCR announced that the passenger trains now stand cancelled till January 31, on account of the prevailing pandemic situation.

Denying that the move was prompted by large number of loco-pilots reportedly being Covid-infected, a railway official clarified that the cancelled services are unreserved trains. "In unreserved trains, possibility of Covid spread is more in comparison to reserved train services. That's why these 55 services have been cancelled" he explained.

On Friday, the South Central Railway (SCR) had cancelled as many as 55 trains covering destinations in the state's of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The passenger train services that were originally cancelled till Monday, January 24, now stand cancelled till Monday, January 31.

The trains include several trains plying from major stations such as Secunderabad, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Kurnool, Kalaburgi, and Chennai.

SCR comprises of the six divisions, of Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guntakal, Guntur and Nanded and basically serves the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and some parts of Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Madhya Pradesh states.