The lifeline of Mumbai, the local trains are back on track after a gap of over two-and-a-half months from Monday in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), but only with limited services for the employees of the Maharashtra government who are engaged in essential services during the Coronavirus lockdown.
The Western Railway tweeted , “WR has resumed its selected suburban services in Mumbai w.e.f. today i.e. Monday, 15th June, 2020 only for movement of essential staff as identified by State Govt.”
Kind Attention :- Western Railway have decided to resume their selected suburban services over WR w.e.f. Monday, 15th June, 2020 with defined protocol & SOP, only for movement of essential staff as identified by the State Government. pic.twitter.com/KlZeGJEq2t
— Western Railway (@WesternRly) June 14, 2020
It also appealed to the people to not “rush to the stations and follow medical and social protocols as mandated for COVID-19.” While, general passengers can not travel in these trains. The essential staff who are “traveling by selected suburban trains are requested to travel with valid tickets,” said the Central Railway.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had asked the Centre for resumption of services as part of the unlocking process post COVID-19 lockdown.
The Central Railway and Western Railway together started 450 services, according to officials.
“The Western Railway will run 60 pairs of its 12 car suburban services total 120 — in both directions between Churchgate and Dahanu Road,” said the Western Railway spokesperson Ravindra Bhakar.
While the Central Railway will run 100 services on either side on its main line — between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to Thane, Kalyan, Karjat and Kasara and 70 services on either side of Harbour line — Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Panvel,” said the Central Railway spokesperson Shivaji Sutar.
These local trains will run between 05.30 hrs to 23.30 hrs.
“The arrival and departure train timings arriving at CSMT suiting to the duty shifts i.e. 7 hrs, 9 hrs, 10 hrs, 15 hrs, 21 hrs, 23 hrs. Departing from CSMT suiting to the duty shifts i.e. – 7 hrs, 9hrs, 15 hrs, 18 hrs, 21 hrs, 23 hrs,” the Central Railway said in its official statement.
The partial resumption of train services will bring some relief to the nearly nearly 80 lakh people (who use these suburban trains) of the worst affected state from Coronavirus Maharashtra, which has reported 1,07,958 cases of COVID-19.
The Railways had suspended all its passenger services from midnight of March 23 to March 31 and only goods train were running during this lockdown period.