Mumbai: Essential workers get 298 more local trains

People at Churchgate station wear face shields as life slowly moves to normal in Mumbai amid lockdown. Pic/Bipin Kokate

An additional 298 local trains will run for the essential service employees, announced the railways late on Tuesday night. More government categories, including the nationalised banks' staff, will be allowed to commute for work with necessary identity cards. Local, however, still remains out of bounds for the general public.

Now, both, Western Railway and Central Railway are allowed to run 350 trains each, daily. While CR has added 150 more locals, WR allowed 148 more. These trains will halt at major stations only. On the harbour line, too, trains will halt only at major stations.

In addition to the essential staff already permitted to take the trains, the categories added from July 1, include defence personnel and employees of central government, Income Tax, GST & Customs and Department of Posts. Employees of nationalised banks, Mumbai Port Trust, Judiciary and Raj Bhavan will also be permitted to travel in these select suburban trains.

Entry will be given at stations after checking the ID cards of the essential employees, identified by the state government. Later on, the staff will be issued QR-based e-passes that will also bear colour coding to enable swiffer ticket checking. The state government will issue these passes.

To ensure adequate physical distance is maintained in coaches, unlike its seating capacity to accommodate about 1,200 people, only 700 are to be allowed per train.

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