Mumbai local trains to open to public from February 1
The Maharashtra government on Friday extended the lockdown across the State till February 28.
“The state government is satisfied that the state of Maharashtra is threatened with the spread of Covid-19 virus, and therefore to take certain emergency measures to prevent and contain the spread of virus, it is expedient to extend the lockdown in the entire state of Maharashtra further till February 28,” reads the order issued by Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar, on behalf of the Governor.
It said that activities already allowed and permitted from time to time shall be continued and all earlier orders shall be aligned with the current directive and remain in force till February-end.
At the same time, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s office said the general public in Mumbai city and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) would finally be permitted to travel in local trains from February 1.
Timings for commuters
However, in a bid to manage large crowds of commuters, the government has fixed time slots of non-peak hours for the general public to travel. The services would operate in three slots: from the start of services for the day to 7 a.m., then from noon to 4 p.m., and then again from 9 p.m. to the closure of services for the day, the order issued by Mr. Kumar stated.
In between these timings, only those in essential services – such as front line workers and healthcare staff, single women travellers and those with a special pass from the State government – would be allowed to travel.
Women have already been allowed access to the local train services since October last, after a request from the State to the Railway Minister.
After Kerala (which presently has more than 70,000 active cases), Maharashtra accounts for the second highest number of active cases in the country. The State currently has more than 43,000 active cases.
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