Vijay Vadettiwar issues statement over resuming Mumbai Local Trains

Many people in Mumbai are waiting for the local train services to resume, however, trains are currently running only for essential workers and not the general public. Several ministers from the Maharashtra cabinet held discussions with the Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray, and discussed the possibility of resuming the suburban local services.

Addressing the concerns and commenting on the topic, the Minister of State for Relief and Rehabilitation, Vijay Vadettiwar, said that the meeting will be held, this week, in about two days and a positive decision is expected in this regard.

Due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, several modes of local transport, mail and national express services will remain closed until September 30, and rumours regarding this were discussed by several citizens on social media a few days ago. However, the railway department has confirmed that the news is completely wrong as the administration has not issued any such statement.

As per current reports, local train services in Mumbai will remain closed for the public and only people who are working for the essential services will be allowed to travel. While a large number of special trains were functional for while, officials have decided that local trains, for the next few days, will run on a limited basis for only for selected staff members in Mumbai. All the other services have been shut down for the time being.

Meanwhile, under the unlock 3.0 initiative, the Government of Maharashtra has allowed businesses to resume in Mumbai and some MMR regions. BEST services are being used by the public under the Mission Begin Again policy, however commuters have been suffering due to congestion in the buses as only limited number of buses are functional, and some are even delayed.

On the other hand, commuters travelling in private vehicles are facing traffic both due to rains and an increasing number of vehicles. This has led to the demand of resuming Mumbai's lifeline - local train services - as it would offer a lot of relief on a daily basis.