Metro services in Mumbai resumed on Monday after several months. As part of precautionary measures, passengers will have to undergo thermal screening at the stations, and will have to follow physical distancing norms.
Passengers will also have to use face masks at all times – whether in trains or on the platform. Taking to Twitter, Mumbai Metro wrote: "We are so delighted to have you back Metrokars. Here are few pictures of commuters who took their favourite Metro ride after 200+ days of break."
The Maharashtra government on October 14 allowed the metro services in Mumbai to resume in a graded manner from October 15 as part of its “Mission Begin Again”.
The Mumbai Metro thanked the government and said that it has already begun safety inspections and trial runs. It said that the passenger operations will restart from October 19. The 11.7 km long metro line used to ferry over 4.5 lakh commuters every day.
“Mumbai Metro is thankful to the Government of Maharashtra for allowing Metro operations. We have already initiated safety inspections and trial runs and are set to restart passenger operations from Monday, 19th October 2020, 8:30 am,” the Mumbai Metro said in a tweet.
The metro trains will ply on the entire route of the Ghatkopar-Versova line from 8:30 am to 8:30 pm. The Mumbai Metro yesterday shared a list of operational entry gates on its Twitter handle to help commuters.
The time duration of the operations for the single 11-km line between Ghatkopar to Versova has also been reduced to 12 hours starting from 8.30 am daily, Mumbai Metro One's chief executive Abhay Kumar Mishra said, PTI reported.
Only 200 services of trains will run with services in either direction is up to 8 minutes as against 5 minutes and 400 services earlier. Temperatures inside the coaches will be maintained between 25-27 degree Celsius and passengers are encouraged to use digital tickets, smart cards or QR code-based tickets, an official statement said, adding no plastic token will be issued. The authorities will be carrying out regular disinfection of all the stations and also the coaches, it said.
