Maha govt writes to Railways; seeks allowance for general citizens to use local trains

With the Mission Begin Again currently underway, the Maharashtra government has written to Indian Railways urging it to allow non-essential passengers to commute by suburban trains. However, the state government has limited its request for non-essential passengers to use local trains only during non-peak hours i.e. up to 8 am in the morning, between 11 am and 4 pm and from 7 pm onwards. This comes after lawyers and women have been permitted to use the suburban trains, which general passengers had been restricted from using due to the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Moreover, the Maharastra government has also suggested two slots for people related to essential services and one ladies special at hourly intervals. 

Maharashtra govt allows lawyers

Last week, the Maharashtra government had allowed lawyers and registered clerks to use the Mumbai local trains till November 23 on an experimental basis. Earlier, only those lawyers who were required to physically appear in the Bombay High Court and registered clerks were permitted to use the Mumbai suburban railway owing to the COVID-19 crisis. However, lawyers can only use the services of local trains during non-peak hours.

READ | Maharashtra Govt Allows Lawyers & Registered Clerks To Travel In Mumbai Local Trains

Metro & Monorail resume operations in Mumbai

After being off tracks for nearly 7 months, Mumbai's Monorail between Chembur and Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk resumed operations on October 18 with limited services. The Monorail got back on tracks a day ahead of the resumption of Metro services in the city, which are set to commence services from Monday. The decision was taken by the state government to resume services of Metro and the Monorail while Local Trains still remain restricted for the general populations. 

Meanwhile, the Mumbai Metro resumed operations from October 19. Time duration of the operations for the single 11-km line between Ghatkopar to Versova has also been curtailed to 12 hours starting from 0830 hrs daily. Only 200 services of trains will run with services in either direction in up to 8 minutes as against 5 minutes and 400 services earlier. As against 1,350 people per service earlier, now the train will carry only 360 people.

READ | Women Allowed To Travel By Suburban Trains; Railways Minister & Maharashtra Govt Concur

Maharashtra COVID tally

On Tuesday, October 27, Maharashtra saw a slight rise in its COVID-19 tally after 5,363 more persons tested positive for the novel coronavirus. This has propelled the State's COVID-19 caseload to 16,54,028. At present, there are 1,31,544 active cases in the State. With 7,836 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 14,78,496. 

Until now, a total of 43,463 persons in the state have died owing to COVID-19. So far, 87,00,033 samples have been tested for the novel coronavirus in labs operational across the state. While 25,28,907 persons are under home quarantine, 13,237 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres. The COVID-19 positivity rate, recovery rate, and fatality rate in Maharashtra stand at 19.01 per cent, 89.39 per cent, and 2.63 per cent respectively. 

READ | Dharavi's COVID-19 Tally Tops 3,500 With 11 New Cases

READ | Mumbai Records Under 1,000 COVID-19 Cases For 2nd Day; 23 Die