Mumbai local trains resume operations for essential services; check new guidelines

Indian Railways' Central and Western Railway zone has said that the Railway Ministry has decided to start Mumbai suburban services over mainline and Harbour line on Monday. Mumbai's suburban services will, however, operate only for people and employees associated with essential services. Mumbai's suburban railway network spreads from Churchgate to Dahanu on the Western Railway route and from CSMT (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus) to Kasara and Khopoli on the Central Railway's main line.

Apart from the main line, the Central Railway also runs services from CSMT to Mahim and Panvel on the Harbour line, from Thane to Vashi on the Trans-Harbour line and also operates the Belapur-Seawood-Kharkopar line.

Around 1.25 lakh essential staff members, including 50,000 on the Western Railway as identified by the state government are expected to travel using these trains. The Railways, however, has laid out detailed guidelines that the people who will travel on these local trains will have to follow.

Important pointers and guidelines:

• These local train services will not be open for the general public. Only people identified as essential staff by the Government of Maharashtra will be allowed to avail this facility.

• Entry will be given at stations strictly through ID cards of essential staff as identified by the State Government. The staff will be issued QR-based E-passes which will also bear colour coding to enable swift ticket checking.

• To ensure social distancing in the coaches, only 700 passengers per train will be allowed instead of the regular 1200 per train.

• The state government has also been urged to ensure that all those who are allowed to travel, are done so after ensuring that they are medically fit and do not come from containment zones.

• Railways will conduct multiple rounds of checking to ensure that only essential staff as identified by the state government boards these trains.