Chennai, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami has urged the central government not to operate regular trains to Chennai till the Covid-19 spread is controlled.

In a letter to the Centre, the state government also said the railways would initially quarantine about 1,100 passengers coming by the Delhi-Chennai Rajdhani Express on May 14.

In a statement, the state government said Palaniswami had requested Railway Minister Piyush Goyal not to operate regular trains to Chennai till the Covid-19 pandemic was controlled.

The railways announced operation of the Delhi-Chennai and the Chennai-Delhi Rajdhani Express on May 14 and May 16. Barring these two trains, there will be no regular services.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Railway Minister Goyal, Palanswami said all train passengers to Chennai would have to the tested for coronavirus. As it was not possible to test around 1,000 passengers, the railways would have to quarantine them and the state government would take the samples in a day or two, it said.

Soon after the test results, the state government will take coronavirus positive persons to hospital and the others to quarantine centres.