Mumbai's suburban train services resume for ferrying essential staff; expected to benefit 1.25 lakh people, says official

Mumbai: The Railways on Monday resumed suburban train services in Mumbai for ferrying essential staff. The Central Railway and Western Railway decided to run “selective suburban services” over main line and harbour line only for essential staff as defined by the state government, a senior official said. The first such train left from Virar for Churchgate in the morning, the official said. “It has been decided to run selected suburban services over mainline and harbour lines w.e.f.15th June, 2020 with defined protocol & SOP, ONLY for movement,” the CR and WR tweeted. “ESSENTIAL STAFF AS IDENTIFIED by the STATE GOVERNMENT who are traveling by selected suburban trains are requested to travel with VALID TICKETS to avoid inconvenience,” they tweeted. Against a seating capacity to accommodate about 1,200 persons, only about 700 are to be allowed per train. The partial resumption of suburban train services is expected to benefit around 1.25 lakh employees of essential services of the state government. Entry will be given at stations through ID cards of the employees, the official said. The Western Railway will run 73 pairs of suburban services, including eight pairs between Virar and Dahanu Road. The Western Railway and Central Railway have decided to run the trains from 5.30 am to 11.30 pm with interval of around 15 minutes. Maharashtra on Sunday recorded 3,390 new coronavirus cases, taking the tally to 1,07,958, while 3,950 people have lost their lives due to COVID-19 so far. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said 1,395 COVID-19 cases and 79 deaths were reported from Mumbai on Sunday. “The total number of cases in the city is now at 58135, including 28,959 active cases, 26,986 discharged and 2,190 deaths,” a BMC official said.