According to a report by Mid-Day, with the surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is planning to stagger office timings.
This comes after the government employees travelling for work on the suburban railways complained about the lack of social distancing inside the compartments of the trains. The trains coming in from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) beyond Kalyan and Virar are witnessing overcrowding as a consequence of limited services and halts. So far, 20 lakh people in Mumbai, working in essential services have traversed on the suburban railways ever since it resumed operations. This news will come as a relief to the daily travellers and is said to bring about a change in maintaining social distance.
The Railways had earlier resumed operations of nearly 300 additional suburban trains in the city from July 1 to facilitate the essential services staff, although some of the commuters claimed that maintaining social distancing was a challenge as most locals were "overcrowded", especially during the peak travel hours.
The local train service which is considered to be the lifeline of Mumbai had its operations suspended in March this year to contain the spread of COVID-19 with the outbreak of the pandemic. However, the Western and Central Railways decided to resume the train services of Mumbai for employees in essential sectors from June 15.
Of the 200 trains (100 DN and 100 UP) being run by the CR, 130 of them are running between CSMT to Kalyan/Karjat/Dombivali/Thane on mainline while 70 services are being run between CSMT and Panvel on harbour line. 150 more services will be added to the existing 200. After Maharashtra government’s request, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had announced the extension in a number of local trains being operated to ferry essential staff in the midst of the coronavirus.
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