New Delhi, Dec 19 (IANS): Ministry of Railways on Saturday announced that it has been working in the direction to increase the capacity to make trains available on demand to reduce the possibility of passengers getting waitlisted.

Rejecting some reports regarding national Rail Plan to end waiting list with effect from 2024 and that only confirmed tickets would be available, the Ministry made it clear that "wait list is a provision that remains whenever the demand for travellers in a given train is more than number of berths or seats available".

"The provision is not being done away," the ministry added.

'Waitlist' is a provision which act as a buffer to mitigate the fluctuations in demand and availability, it said. "Railways would like to explain and clarify that efforts are being made to increase the capacity to make trains available on demand. This would reduce the possibility of passengers getting waitlisted."

The ministry issued the clarification after some reports mentioning to end waiting list in Railways with effect from 2024 in a particular media wing and that the Indian Railways plans to run demand-based passenger trains while raising its share in freight movement from 27 per cent now to 45 per cent by 2030 as part of its draft National Rail Plan.

The passenger trains services, however, are yet to achieve pre-Covid levels, the Indian Railways is trying to improve its capacity. Currently, Indian Railways is running 1,089 passenger trains compared to 1,768 trains prior to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.