Mumbai: After a lot of discussions and debates, local trains have finally started exclusively for women from Wednesday. The services were banned by the railway after the state government allowed women to travel locally. As a result, there was intense resentment amongst women commuters. But now all obstacles have been removed.
With the launch of local services for women, RPF and GRP police have tightened security at railway stations, ticket stations and platforms. But there was a mixed response from women. In Dombivali, the busiest station on the Central Railway, women thronged for local tickets. Therefore, in some other stations, the number of women was less.
Local service closed due to corona
The highest prevalence of Coronavirus cases was in Maharashtra. Considering the increasing number of patients and crowds, the railway administration decided to close the local service which is the lifeline of Mumbai from midnight on March 22.
Service resumes after three months ...
Mumbai was paralyzed due to the closure of local services to prevent the spread of Covid. But then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had asked the Center to start a local for essential services. Finally, on June 14, the Railways approved the launch of a locomotive for employees going for emergency services late at night. Employees of the Central Institution were allowed to travel locally from July 1, as were employees of the State Government's Emergency Service. As a result of the increase in the number of employees, Central and Western Railways also increased the number of rounds of their locomotives.
Women's travel
The state government had asked the railways to allow all-female passengers to travel by local trains from October 17. However, to increase local services, some mechanisms will have to be added. The railway administration had sent a letter to the state government saying it was not possible to start the service immediately. No decision has been taken by the railway administration since then. There have been several meetings over the last two days on this issue. Later on Tuesday, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal finally gave a green signal to women to travel in local trains. Accordingly, women will now be able to travel by local trains from 11.00 am to 3.00 pm and from 7.00 pm to 12.00 am.
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