Over seven months since the Covid-19 lockdown, the Maharashtra government has written to the Indian Railways, seeking permission to allow local train services for everyone with seperate time slots.
Seven months on, the Maharashtra government has seeked permission from the Indian Railways to allow all Mumbaikars to travel by local trains like before at different timings. Mumbai's lifeline, local was shut down when the Central Government announced the first lockdown in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However the government has not announced a desired date and has left it to the railways to work out the modalities. But if reports are to be believed it is likely to be from the first week of November.
For this, Mumbai state Disaster Management, Relief and Rehabilitation secretary Kishor Raje Nimbalkar has written a letter to the general managers of the Central Railways and Western Railways along with the Commissioner of Police, Railways.
In his letter Nimbalkar proposed separate time slots for essential service providers and the general public. Nimbalkar also proposed to run one ladies' special train every hour, as reported in TOI.
According to the proposed plan, Maharashtra general public should be allowed to board trains during three non-peak time slots.
Non-peak slots for general public
- Start of first local train until 7.30 am
- 11 am to 4.30 pm
- 8 pm to last train for the day
Proposed time slots for essential service providers
- 8 am to 10.30 am
- 5 pm to 7.30 pm
'The above proposed time schedule would require increasing the frequency of local trains to meet the demand of above proposed commuters,' the proposal stated.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led government has proposed different time slots to encourage private offices to stagger work timings, a senior official told TOI.
Currently, around seven lakh are using Mumbai’s local train network, especially during peak hours and if more are allowed during the same time, it will not be possible to maintain COVID-19 protocols, the official was quoted as saying.
The state government did not propose any desired date for allowing general public in the local trains, said to be the lifeline of the financial capital.
The Central Railways is preparing inputs for submission to the state government, said the report citing CR’s chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar.
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