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Mumbai Local Trains News Update: Full-fledged suburban services to resume for general public from THIS date

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government has finally decided to resume local train services in Mumbai for the general public. Western Railway has decided to start all its suburban services by increasing existing 1201 special services to 1367 w.e.f. Friday, January 29, 2021, a media update issued on Tuesday said. 

CPRO Western Railway Sumit Thakur said, “Passengers, as permitted by Ministry of Railways and Government of Maharashtra, are only allowed to travel by suburban trains. Passengers are advised to adhere to all norms, SOPs related to COVID-19 during the boarding, travel, and at the destination. Others are requested not to rush the station.” 

Before the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, as many as 80 lakh passengers used the local train services in Mumbai. Currently, there are 20 lakh passengers and if experts are to be believed then the number may not touch 80 lakh again anytime soon as people are still working from home in the city. 

For the uninformed, the Western Railway has 1,201 train services running currently but from Friday, the number will go up to 1,367. As for the Central Railway, 1,580 services a day are run currently but from January 29, 1,774 trains will be operated.

The local train services had resumed service in June after being closed for more than 2 months. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said that a decision on allowing all commuters to board suburban train services in Mumbai will be taken “soon”.

Thackeray took a review meeting on the issue of resumption of suburban train services and considered several options on allowing all passengers to use locals keeping in mind that there is no crowding while the COVID-19 threat is dealt with.

Source: dnaindia.com