Mumbai suburban train services have resumed for all following a gap of about 320 days, though for limited hours. The suburban train services were suspended in the city on March 22 last year due to the COVID-19 outbreak and gradually resumed from June 15.

Central Railway’s chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said local police is helping to manage the crowd. Ticket counter and all authorised entry/exit points have been opened. Escalators and foot over-bridges have also been opened on the suburban railway stations.

“There is more deployment of security force at crowd- sensitive stations,”Sutar said, PTI reported.

“Wearing of masks is compulsory and coordination will be ensured with civic authorities for collecting fines from those who violate the COVID-19 prevention norms,” he added. 

However, general public will be permitted to travel only from the time of start of services for the day till 7 am, from 12 noon to 4 pm, and from 9 pm till the closure of services for the day.

Only employees of the essential services and categories of commuters specified by the Maharashtra government and the Ministry of Railways will be allowed to travel in local trains from 7 am to 12 noon and from 4 pm to 9 pm.

In order to ensure that people are only travelling as per the time slots allotted to them, random checking of tickets will be done.