After Maharashtra government’s request, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday night announced the extension in a number of local trains being operated to ferry essential staff amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

Taking to Twitter, Goyal announced that the railways were to expand 350 local trains in Mumbai from July 1. The employees of the central government, Income Tax Department, Customs, Mumbai Port Trust, Courts, Public sector banks among others will be allowed to board the local trains in Mumbai. 

However, the Union Railway Minister clarified that the local train services will be only available for essential staff recognised by the Maharashtra government and not general passengers. 

“Railways to expand to 350 local trains in Mumbai from tomorrow. As identified by State govt., essential staff incl. employees of Centre, IT, GST, Customs, Postal, Nationalised Banks, MBPT, Judiciary, Defence & Raj Bhavan allowed. No services yet for general passengers (sic),” Goyal tweeted. 

Railways to expand to 350 local trains in Mumbai from tomorrow.

As identified by State govt., essential staff incl. employees of Centre, IT, GST, Customs, Postal, Nationalised Banks, MBPT, Judiciary, Defence & Raj Bhavan allowed. No services yet for general passengers. pic.twitter.com/QtegX16bLE

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) June 30, 2020

The local train service is the lifeline of Mumbai and its operations were suspended indefinitely in March this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the Western and Central Railways decided to start 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 main line while 70 services are being run between CSMT and Panvel on harbour line. 150 more services will be added to the existing 200, it said. 

Meanwhile, the WR is running a total of 202 trains after adding 40 additional trains to the 162 which were started earlier. In addition to this, 148 more trains will be added from July 1. The number of trains running on both WR and CR is now 350 each. 

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