Mumbai: More than 20 lakh Mumbaikars working as essential staff have travelled on the suburban services in the last 21 days. Currently, 350 services are being run on both Central and Western Railway. Essential workers said resuming local train services during this lockdown was very important as they did not have to waste their time waiting at the bus stop.
Currently, Western Railway is running 350 local train services on its Mumbai Suburban section only for essential services staff as identified by the State Government.
From July 1, in addition to the essential staff already permitted to travel by select suburban services, the state government has also allowed defence personnel and employees of Central Government, Income Tax, GST & Customs and Department of Posts, nationalised banks, Mumbai Port Trust, judiciary and Raj Bhavan to travel in these selected suburban services.
Railway officials said until July 5 WR has issued 1,69,489 tickets since the services started from June 15 and have earned Rs 121.88 lakh from issuing of tickets. “Till now 12.93 lakh Mumbaikars serving as essential services staff have travelled over the Mumbai Suburban section in the last 21 days. These services are being run with a defined protocol & SOP. All trains and stations are regularly sanitized. WR has also deputed TTEs to ensure the convenience of valid ticket travellers. While passengers are to follow social distancing norms,” said an official.
Sandesh Mestry, a GPO staff member, said, “Many employees come from far places and that their travelling time has shortened drastically as they used to reach office by buses earlier. Moreover, the frequency of trains was good as there were trains every 15 mins,” he said.
Sushmita More, who is an employee of GST office at Bhayandar, said, “Resuming the local trains and permitting them to travel, which has helped her reach her workplace easier from her residence at Vasai Road.”
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