From today, all women can travel in Mumbai local trains during non-peak hours

• Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on October 20 announced that all women passengers will be allowed to travel in local trains in Mumbai and suburbs from Wednesday.
• Until now only those engaged in frontline duties and essential staff as categorised by the Maharashtra government are allowed to travel in the local trains.
• The Western Railway and the Central Railway are as of now collectively operating around 700 local train services every day on their suburban network.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, on October 20, announced that all women passengers will be allowed to travel in local trains in Mumbai and suburbs from Wednesday. Railways will allow women to travel between 11am and 3pm and after 7pm.

Until now only those engaged in frontline duties and essential staff as categorised by the Maharashtra government are allowed to travel in the local trains run by the Central Railway and the Western Railway, through a QR code mechanism.

The Western Railway and the Central Railway are as of now collectively operating around 700 local train services every day on their suburban network.

Earlier, the Western Railway said that it is ready and is waiting for the central government’s response on the same. The Maharashtra government is likely to announce standard operating procedures (SOP) to allow women commuters to travel this week.

“Maharashtra govt requested us on Oct 16 to allow local trains services for women, from 11 am to 3 pm & from 7 pm till end of services for the day. We wrote them back & asked them to assess the quantum of passengers & asked them to jointly decide the modalities,” Sumit Thakur, CPRO of Western Railway said.

The Maharashtra government on Friday announced it has allowed all women to commute by local trains at certain hours, starting from October 17.However, later on Friday evening, the Western Railway (WR) and Central Railway (CR) refused to oblige without getting the green signal from the Railway Board, and working out the necessary modalities to permit women commuters.

In a letter to the General Managers of Western Railway and Central Railway, the state government said all women must be permitted to travel by local trains from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and from 7 p.m. till the last service.

“We talked to them yesterday too. Railway is ready. WesternRailways has extended its services to 700 trains, including 2 ladies' special. Central Railways also extended its services to 706. State government is yet to convey their modalities to us,” Thakur said on October 19.

Western Railway CPRO said railways have to ensure that there is no overcrowding at stations and the passengers don't face any problem. Western Railway is awaiting government response on the matter

In Maharashtra, women comprise around 40% of the total 85 lakh commuters and the move would help lakhs of women office-goers in the government and private sector, academics and other sectors who need to travel by the Mumbai local trains daily.

Presently, the women are compelled to spend around 4-5 hours daily only commuting by roads from distant suburbs.

SEE ALSO:
Mahindra Thar 2020 crosses 15,000 bookings — 57 % are first time car buyers