For a common man, the long-awaited hope of traveling local now seems to get fulfilled with the new announcement by Railay authorities. After Western Railways, Central railways also has planned to resume local services from January 29th, 2021. The Central Railway has decided to increase the suburban services from existing 1,580 to 1,665 services. Similarly, WR also has decided to increase the present 1,201 suburban services to 1,367. Both of these increases in services number will be effective from Friday, January 29th, 2021.

There was a meeting held at Maharashtra Cheif Minister Udhav Thackeray’s official bungalow, earlier this week, to discuss the resumption of local train services for all. Post-meeting it was revealed that soon there will be a decision for reopening of local train services for all but the date of reopening was not revealed.

The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar, principal Advisor Ajoy Mehta, Brihanmumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, Disaster Management Director Abhay Yavalkar, General Manager of Central Railway Sanjeev Mittal, and General Manager of Western Railway, Alok Kansal. Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh was also present along with senior officials.

Will all commuters have permission to Commute?

As a precautionary measure, currently, the Mumbai Local service is not available for all the commuters. It is only available for a certain category of people including people providing essential services and for women after obtaining a special pass, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It has been advised for all the residents traveling in local trains to adhere to COVID19  norms and take all necessary precautionary measures. Commuters should strictly follow the standard operating procedures related to COVID-19 prevention.

Earlier On January 24, the Federation of Retail Welfare Association urged the Maharashtra government to allow the mass resumption of train services in Mumbai.

In the past week, the Kalyan-Kasara Railway Passengers Welfare Association appealed to the government to lift the curbs for students.

The CR and WR resumed the suburban services for emergency and essential services staff on June 15 last year.

Gradually, passengers from some other categories, like lawyers and staff of foreign consulates, were also allowed to travel in the local trains.

In October last year, the state government proposed to the railway authorities to allow the general public to board the local trains at stipulated timings during non-peak hours.

But, the plan was put on the back-burner as COVID-19 cases rose in some places after the Diwali festival.