New Delhi: As Maharashtra is witnessing a sharp drop in Covid cases and even recorded the lowest number of infections on Monday since March 2020, the Uddhav Thackeray government on Tuesday decided to introduce fully vaccinated people. Allowed to travel in local trains.
The state government issued an order asking common people, irrespective of the nature of their jobs, to board suburban trains in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Maharashtra government has extended the definition of fully vaccinated people to cover people working in non-essential sectors as well. The order means that any person who has both divided and completed 14 days after vaccination can travel in local trains, reported PTI.
Presently, Central Railway and Western Railway are issuing monthly passes to vaccinated passengers instead of daily tickets to decongest the crowd.
Notably, both the railways said on Monday that suburban services in Mumbai will be operated at 100 per cent capacity of pre-pandemic level from October 28, but the existing travel restrictions for the general public will remain unchanged.
An official said on Monday that this decision has been taken in view of the increasing number of passengers.
Central Railway and Western Railway will run 1,774 and 1,367 services respectively on their suburban network from October 28. Zonal Railways used to operate many of these services before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Presently, Central Railway and Western Railway are operating 1,702 and 1,304 suburban services respectively, which is 95.70 per cent of the total suburban services during normal period.
As of now, only government employees and employees of essential services are allowed to travel in suburban trains, apart from fully vaccinated citizens, who have completed 14 days after the second dose and who are below 18 years.
Following the outbreak of the pandemic, the suburban services were completely stopped with effect from March 22, 2020. Later the Railways introduced suburban services for essential service categories, as identified by the Government of Maharashtra and approved by the Ministry of Railways with effect from June 15, 2020.
Suburban locals are the lifeline of Mumbai with around 80 lakh passengers traveling in these trains before the COVID-19 pandemic. The graph of COVID-19 is slowing down in Maharashtra too.
The state recorded 889 COVID-19 cases on Monday, the lowest number in a day since May 5, 2020, and 12 fresh deaths, a day in more than 18 months, a health department official said. Lowest number of deaths.
(with PTI inputs)
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