In a relief to all commuters, Mumbai local trains may open its doors to the general public fortnight after Diwali festival. However, this will happen only if there isn’t a significant spike in COVID-19 cases. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said that daily COVID-19 cases will be closely monitored for two weeks after Diwali following which a final call on resuming local trains for the general public will be taken.
Though, any instances of a spike in daily cases reported in the city will further postpone the resumption of the service. However, the virus has a 14-day cycle and this period will be crucial to know if there is any surge in coronavirus cases post-Diwali. The final call on fully resuming local trains will be taken by the state government.
Meanwhile, officials from the Railways have replied through a letter, seeking consultation from the state government. The letter stated that both "Central and Western Railway does not have any issues in increasing the train services from existing services, but the issue of segmentation/segregation of passengers, thus enabling social distancing, has to be ensured by the State Government, by some technological solution / App or otherwise. The help of State Government Police would also be required to support existing strength of RPF, GRP, in the crowd control."
Sharing information about the Western Railways, the officials said, "In the present Covid regime, a safe number of passengers per EMU service would work out to 700. So, even if we start all 1367 EMU services, we can transport a maximum of 9.6 lakh passengers daily, which is much less than the 35 lakh passengers which were travelling in the Pre-Covid regime."
Adding more about the Central Railways, the letter said, "In the present Covid regime, a safe number of passengers per EMU service would work out to 700. So, even if we start all 1774 EMU services, we can transport a maximum of 12.4 lakh passengers daily, which is much less than the 45 lakh passengers which were travelling in the Pre-Covid regime. Hence the state government would need to take a call on the means of transportation for the balance 33 lakh passengers."
Requesting a meeting with the concerned authorities, the railways mentioned, "The State Government should quickly decide the technological solution they propose to stagger the rush in the trains, with total passengers travelling in a single-day capped to the numbers mentioned. It is learnt that Government of West Bengal has already taken steps in this direction and Government of Maharashtra is also considering developing an App for this. Meetings in this context have been held by the State Government on 22rd and 27th of October ‘2020, in which Central Railway and Western Railway Officials have also participated. Railway is willing to provide all statistical inputs to the State Government, if required, for development of this technological solution."
The inputs based on observations with regards to starting local trains will be given to the state by civic bodies of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
On October 30, the state government had written to the general managers of both the zonal railways and had proposed three time-slots during the day for general commuters, and two time-slots for essential services staff. The government had started operations of local trains since June in a staggered manner. At first, only employees in essential services were allowed but with time more categories were added. Now women too have been allowed to board trains. There is a "ladies special" train every hour.
Since October 24, the city has seen a downward curve in COVID-19 cases. Prior to this, daily cases reported were all-time high on almost every alternate day. The civic body is taking various measures to avoid any further surge in cases, especially during Diwali festivities.
Over 7.5 million people travel by Mumbai suburban train every day, which was closed in March following the outbreak of coronavirus. Later, the services were started for people in essential sectors and last month, for all women commuters during non-peak hours.
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