After a gap of nearly two-and-a-half months, limited suburban train services began in the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR) on Monday.
The local services on the network of Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) are only for the employees of the Maharashtra government who are engaged in essential services.
Since the last one month, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has made three requests to the Centre for resumption of services as pert of the unlocking process post coronavirus lockdown.
The CR and WR together would run 450 services, according to a statement issued vy the Railways late on Sunday night.
The WR will run 60 pairs of its 12 car suburban services (total 120 - 60 in Up direction and 60 in Down direction) between Churchgate and Dahanu Road, according to WR spokesperson Ravindra Bhakar.
The CR 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 sides of Harbour line - Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Panvel, according to CR spokesperson Shivaji Sutar.
These trains will run between 0530 hrs to 2330 hrs according to a CR-WR joint statement.
The Maharashtra government will be the nodal authority.
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Approximately 1.25 lakh employees employed in essential services of state government are expected to travel by these trains. These special suburban services will not be for general passengers/public and will be strictly for essential services employees of Maharashtra government. Travelling authority will be applicable as per normal procedure over WR and CR and certain booking windows will be opened for the same.
The Railways workman special trains, already running, will continue to run. The RPF will be deployed at various stations. Food stalls will not be kept open.
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Entry will be given at stations through ID cards of employees. Later on, the employees will be issued QR based E-passes which will also bear colour coding to enable swifter ticket checking. The state government will coordinate for this.
Railways as well as the state government will ensure multiple rounds of checking to ensure only essential workers board these trains.
The state government has been urged to ensure all those allowed to travel are done so after ensuring that they are medically fit and do not come from containment zones.
To allow adequate social distancing in the coaches only about 700 passengers are to be allowed per train, unlike its seating capacity of 1,200 persons. Further the state government is advised to stagger the timings of its offices for workers coming from different areas to ensure there is no crowding at the stations and inside the trains.
"It is requested not to rush to the stations and follow medical and social protocols as mandated for COVID-19," the CR-WR joint statement said.