In a bid to ferry more number of essential staff as identified by the state government, Central and Western Railway will be adding more 150 and 148 suburban services respectively to its existing ones.
“Railways to expand to 350 local trains in Mumbai from tomorrow. As identified by State govt., essential staff incl. employees of Centre, IT, GST, Customs, Postal, Nationalised Banks, MBPT, Judiciary, Defence & Raj Bhavan allowed. No services yet for general passengers,” tweeted Piyush Goyal, Ministry of Railways.
Currently, CR is running 200 services on the main and harbour line which will now increase to 350 from today. “Additional 150 more services will be added to the existing services making the total to 350 services from today. The number of services may be modified as per the requirement to ensure social distancing norms,” said Shivaji Sutar, CPRO, CR.
Similarly, WR will be adding more 148 services to its existing 202 suburban services from today. “In addition to these services, 148 more suburban services will be added today. Therefore, total 350 suburban services will be operated,” said Ravinder Bhakar, CPRO, WR.
These trains will halt at major stations only as that of fast locals. In the harbour line also, the trains will halt at major stations only.
In addition to the essential staff already permitted to travel by select suburban services, the categories instructed by MHA i.e. defence personnel and employees of Central Government, Income Tax, GST & Customs and Department of Posts, vide their letter dated 27.6.2020 and employees of Nationalised Banks, Mumbai Port Trust, Judiciary and Raj Bhavan will be permitted to travel in these select suburban services from today.
However, these selected suburban services will not be for general passengers/public & will be strictly for essential staff, as identified by the State Government only. Moreover, It is also requested that travellers follow all protocols as mandated for COVID19.
