MUMBAI: After dilly-dallying for several days, the Indian Railways has finally allowed the women commuters to travel in suburban Mumbai local trains during non-peak hours from Wednesday (October 21, 2020).
It may be noted that the Maharashtra government had last week requested the Railways to allow women to commute by local trains during the non-peak hours - from 11 am to 3 pm, and from 7 pm till the end of the day's services.
Making the announcement on Tuesday evening, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said all women would be allowed to travel in the local trains from Wednesday between 11 AM to 3 PM and, after 7 PM till the last train.
"We were always ready and with the receipt of the letter from the Maharashtra government on Tuesday, we have allowed the travel," Goyal said in a tweet.
In a major ‘Unlock’ initiative on October 16, the state government had on Friday said it would allow all the women to commute by local trains at certain hours starting from October 17.
Currently, 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.
On Tuesday morning, Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar asked the railway authorities to consider its request "at the earliest".
Later, taking to Twitter, Goyal said, "I am happy to announce that Railways will allow women to travel on suburban trains from 21 Oct between 11 am to 3 pm and after 7 pm. We were always ready and with the receipt of letter from Maharashtra Govt today, we have allowed this travel."
I am happy to announce that Railways will allow women to travel on suburban trains from 21 Oct between 11 am to 3 pm & after 7 pm. We were always ready and with the receipt of letter from Maharashtra Govt today, we have allowed this travel.
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) October 20, 2020
The Western Railway and the Central Railway are now collectively operating around 700 local train services every day on their suburban network.
