Mumbai local likely to resume services next week, only essential providers at first
Ministry of Railways is yet to give its nod to the resumption of services, the state government has been asked to prepare a standard operating procedure (SOP) to start operating the trains for only select categories of people including those providing essential services.
Mumbai’s local train services which were suspended in March after the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, may resume next week, ThePrint has reported.
The report said while Ministry of Railways is yet to give its nod to the resumption of services, the state government has been asked to prepare a standard operating procedure (SOP) to start operating the trains for only select categories of people including those providing essential services.
A source told ThePrint that the services will initially resume for essential service providers and the state government will be required to give the passenger details, similar to the process of Shramik special trains. The tickets will be issued directly to people who are allowed to travel.
The trains may stop only at the bigger and major stations enroute. However, the Ministry of Railways has not given a conformation on resumption of local trains in Mumbai. With regard to the local train services, Chief Public Relations Officer, Central Railway, Mumbai posted a clarification on Twitter.
There are messages in circulation about starting of suburban trains. In this regard, it is informed that..
“So far, we haven’t received such instructions in this direction. We will update you once we receive instructions from competent authority”@Central_Railway @drmmumbaicr
— Shivaji M Sutar (@ShivajiIRTS) June 13, 2020
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had earlier stressed on the need to resume local train services in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region for frontline healthcare workers, who are great difficulty in commuting and joining hospital duty, due to the lack of public transport.
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The minister was quoted as saying that he has been demanding resumption of local rail services from the Centre in this regard as it is extremely important for the hospital staff and related workforce engaged in essential and emergency services.
However, there has been no response from the Centre on this issue yet.
