Will Mumbai Local Train Services Be Restricted Amid Rising COVID Cases? Read What Railways Says

Mumbai Local Train Services Latest News: Western Railways said there is no proposal from the Central government to restrict local services.

Mumbai Local Train Services Latest News: Amid rising cases of coronavirus in the country’s financial capital, will Mumbai local train services, which is believed to be one of the reasons behind the upsurge in the cases, be restricted? Both the Central and Western Railways, however, maintain that they have ensured passengers follow COVID protocols while travelling in local trains. Experts believe that the Mumbai local trains that reopened for the general public from February 1 are being attributed as one of the reasons behind the rise of coronavirus cases in the city.

Western Railways CPRO Sumit Thakur told News 18 that the Railways has taken all precautions and the Western Railways is taking all necessary steps to check the spread of Covid-19.

Notably, Thakur said that there is no proposal from the state or Central government to restrict local services. He said: “There is no proposal to restrict services. Whatever directives we get from the State government, we will follow and inform.”

Even though the local train services have resumed for the general public for a limited time in the day, the number of passengers travelling in these trains has increased from 20-35 lakhs. The number of patients is also increasing simultaneously.

He also added that the Railways is constantly sanitising train rakes and have a dedicated team for this. For the convenience of passengers, the Railways has also opened more than 300 booking counters. 1,300 services are running as of now, and the Railways is fully abiding by the directives given by the state government.

He further added that with the help of the government and BMC, the Railways team is also penalising people who are not following the Covid protocol. So far the Railways has fined 2,400 people and a fine of more than Rs 3 lakh has been collected, he added.

The development comes at a time when Maharashtra has reported 6218 new COVID19 cases on Tuesday with  5869 recoveries and 51 deaths in the last 24 hours.

He also added that the regular announcement to wear masks is being broadcasted at all stations and violators are fined.

Central Railways CPRO Shivaji Sutar said that the Railways has teams from RPF and GRP that are deployed at sensitive spots to manage crowds. So there is no congestion and crowd accumulation at any given point.

However, the BMC data shows that resumption of the local train service is one of the reasons behind the spike in coronavirus numbers in Mumbai. As per updates, till February 1, the daily positive cases were under 400, but by the end of the first week, the number surpassed the 500 mark.

On the other hand, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has tightened the rules to control the number of patients and has tightened the penalties on not wearing masks.