Amid decreasing vaccine doubt and controlled relaxations in the advent of a potential third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the government of Maharashtra issued new guidelines for commuters of the Mumbai local train network on Tuesday.
The state government said in its latest notification.
“Full vaccination mandatory for traveling in Mumbai local trains for essential workers and government employees,”
Elaborating on who qualifies as a ‘vaccinated person,’ the order stated that this involves people who have taken both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine and completed 14 days that have elapsed since the second dose administration.
The government said.
“With regarding to the issue of passes for train travel, any kind of passes monthly, quarterly, half yearly, etc. are permit to be issued to commuters who fall within the definition of ‘vaccinated persons’,”
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The Western Railway and the Central Railway have issued monthly passes to vaccinated passengers instead of daily tickets to reduce crowding.
Full vaccination mandatory for travel in Mumbai local trains for essential workers and government employees: Government of Maharashtra#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/ULZYmeb1Qi
— ANI (@ANI) October 26, 2021
It is noted that the western and central railways had yesterday said that local suburban services in Mumbai would operate at 100 percent capacity and pre-pandemic level starting 28 October. However, their existing restriction will be the same. The step was taken considering the rising flow of passengers.
Western and Central Railways will operate 1,774 and 1,367 trains on their suburbans network starting 28th October. This is the strength at which the zonal railways were used before the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020.
The zonal railways run 1,304 and 1,702 suburban services, respectively, 95.70 percent of the standard strength.
Till now, only essential services staffers and government employees were allowed to travel by local trains, aside from fully-vaccinated citizens who have completed the 14-day waiting period after the second dose.
