Mumbai, June 15: Mumbai local trains resumed operations from today only for the essential service workers in the government sector. The announcement was made by Central and Western Railway along with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The services started after more than two months and the general public will not be allowed to board these trains.

The Western Railway (WR) will run 73 pairs of suburban services including eight pairs between Virar and Dahanu Road. These trains will run from 5.30 am to 11.30 pm with an interval of approximately 15 minutes. Maximum services will run between Churchgate and Virar, but few will also run upto Dahanu Road. The Central Railway (CR) is likely to operate nearly 200 train services. Mumbai Local Trains to Start Soon? CM Uddhav Thackeray Reiterates Demand For Resumption of Suburban Railway Services.

Western Railway to run 73 pairs of suburban services

Here's what Central Railways has tweeted:

SOPs for passengers: 

To allow adequate social distancing, unlike its usual capacity of 1200 people, only 700 will be allowed per train. In addition to this, the state government has advised offices for stagger timings for their workers to avoid overcrowding in trains. All those who travel should be medically fit and should not come from the containment zone.

Maharashtra is one of the worst affected states in the coronavirus pandemic in India. The state has a maximum number of coronavirus cases totally 1,04,568 cases. CM Uddhav Thackeray had been repeatedly requesting the Centre and the Ministry of Railways to start suburban train services in Mumbai for essential service providers. Ever since the nationwide lockdown was announced in March, local trains were stopped.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 15, 2020 07:23 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).