By Local train services in Mumbai will resume operations for the general public from February 1, an order issued by the Maharashtra government Friday stated.
Trains will run for the general public only at certain timings; from 4.15 am to 7 am, 12 pm to 4 pm, and 9 pm to 1 am. Essential workers, on the other hand, can commute between 7 am to 12 pm, and from 4 pm to 9 pm.
The government has also requested different establishments to stagger their work schedule in a manner wherein their staff could avail the services of the local trains in the given timings.
While the state government had earlier considered resuming the services from January, the fear of the UK variant of the novel coronavirus forced it to defer this plan. But with economic activity almost back to normal and the plan to reopen secondary school classrooms in the city under active consideration, the state government was under pressure to resume local train services.
Last week, the CMO and senior state government officials held detailed deliberations with railway officials in this regard. In the build-up to the resumption plan, the railways began running 204 additional special train services among the Mumbai suburban rail route, taking the total number of running train services to 2,985, which is 95 per cent of its total capacity.
