With COVID-19 cases on the rise across the country, Indian Railways on Thursday said it would refund all tickets booked for regular trains between July 1 and August 12.

"Indian Railways have decided to cancel all trains from July 1 to August 12 and refund will be provided to the tickets booked for this period," said an official statement.

"Only special trains announced in May and June will run," the statement added.

It may be mentioned here that rail services- both commercial and cargo- were abruptly disrupted in late March as coronavirus pandemic gripped the entire country.

With an aim to prevent the spread of the virus, the Indian Railways stopped the plying of trains across the country.

However, with certain relaxations coming in, the railways decided to operate special passenger trains, allowing people stranded in several places across the country reach their homes.

Moreover, earlier in June, India Railways decided to increase the number of special passenger trains running in the country from 30 to over 200.

ALSO READ | Assam's COVID-19 Recovery Rate Among Top Three States

ALSO READ | Shramik Special Train From Hyderabad Reaches Manipur

ALSO READ | COVID-19: Lockdown Imminent In Guwahati

Among these includes 15 pairs of trains running on the Rajdhani routes since May 12 and 100 pairs operating since June 1.

But as COVID-19 cases continue to increase in the country at an exponential rate, there is still uncertainty as to when the railways will be able to resume normal train services.

It may be mentioned here that around 12, 000 trains were operated daily by the railways before the lockdown, ferrying around 2 crore people.

Railways, however, made it clear that the limited special suburban services that began running recently in Mumbai to ferry essential services personnel identified will continue to run.

All passengers, however, are required to undergo thermal screenings and only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel.

Apart from using hand sanitisers, the passengers are also required to maintain social distancing on-board the trains.

On Thursday, a record 16,9222 cases were registered in India taking total cases in the country to nearly 5 lakh with nearly 15,000 deaths.

India is at the fourth position, only behind the United States, Brazil and Russia, among the most COVID-19 affected countries.