Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Government on Wednesday decided to allow metro trains in Mumbai to operate from October 15 in a phased manner under its 'Mission Begin Again' initiative.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Metro has thanked the Government and said they "have already initiated safety inspections and trial runs". They also said that the passenger operations will restart from 8:30 am on October 19.
Taking to Twitter, Mumbai Metro wrote, "@MumMetro is thankful to 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. #MissionBeginAgain #HaveANiceDay."
The Maharashtra Government has also allowed reopening of all state-run and private libraries from Thursday following COVID-19 protocols.
It also allowed Business-to-Business Exhibitions from tomorrow outside containment zones.
Local weekly bazaars, including that of animals, will also be allowed to reopen outside containment zones.
With an aim to reduce crowd, markets and shops will be allowed to remain open for two additional hours till 9 pm from tomorrow (Thursday).
However, schools, colleges, educational and coaching institutions will continue to remain closed for students up to October 31. Online distance learning shall continue to be permitted and shall be encouraged, said the guidelines.
Besides, permission will be granted for 50% of teaching and non-teaching staff to be called to the schools at the time for online teaching /tele-counselling and related works, in areas outside the containment zones from October 15. The SOP regarding health and safety precautions for the same will be issued by the School Education Department.
