Mumbai's "lifeline" was back on track after nearly three months as the Railways on Monday resumed suburban train services 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.
"Scaling up services to combat COVID-19, Railways resumes selected local trains in Mumbai from Monday. Catering to essential staff as identified by State Govt, trains have eased the lives of people, providing safe & comfortable travel," Railway Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted.
As many as 162 suburban services of Western Railway resumed on Monday, an official said. The service is only for essential staff nominated by the state government, he said, adding social distancing norms were being followed at stations.
"Travellers were happy to reach their office in much short time than by road," he said.
A doctor in Mumbai described the resumption of local trains for essential staff as a great relief.
He said he was happy as the trains will ease transportation of his staff and help them fight COVID-19 effectively.
"It's a great relief fr a doctor,who is thanking WR. He runs a pathology clinic at Andheri & is very much delighted,as local trns fr essential staff start functioning in Mumbai.His staff living fr away like Vasai Road, can nw travel comfortably to reach his clinic," the WR tweeted.
SEE: Mumbai's local trains resume services
"As per the demand by State Govt, WR has resumed 73 pairs of its 12 car suburban btwn Churchgate & Dahanu Road including 8 pairs btwn Virar & Dahanu Road w.e.f. 15th June, 2020 with defined protocol & SOP, only fr movement of essential govt staff as identified by the State Govt," it tweeted.
The first such train left from Virar for Churchgate in the morning, the official said.
"It was decided to run selected suburban services over mainline and harbour lines from Monday with defined protocol and SOP," he said.
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 at stations is through ID cards of the essential services staff, the official said.
Photographs: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff.com, Sahil Salvi/Rediff.com, PTI Photo
Maha's COVID crisis: Why is Pawar missing in action?
SEE: Heavy rain floods Maha COVID-19 hospital
India's COVID-19 Crisis May Get Worse
The sorry state of India's largest COVID-19 facility
Lockdown lessons: How to be atmanirbhar with nishtha