The Maharashtra government has decided to resume metro train services from October 19 in a phased manner, weeks after the Centre, in its Unlock4 guidelines, allowed the reopening of the rapid transport system across the country.
The operation of metro trains will ease pressure on conventional public transport mediums like local buses and trains in Mumbai, which is the worst sufferer of the coronavirus pandemic.
Under the guidelines, the authorities had decided to discourage cash transactions and tokens.
Based on central guidelines in August, the metro authorities of Delhi, Noida, Chennai, Kochi, Bengaluru, Mumbai Line-1, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Maha Metro (Nagpur), Kolkata, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh had prepared their standard operating procedures and have been running metro services since last month.
The Uddhav Thackeray government has also allowed reopening of all state-run and private libraries from Thursday. It has also allowed business-to-business exhibitions from tomorrow outside containment zones.
With an aim to reduce crowd, markets and shops will be allowed to remain open for two additional hours till 9 pm from tomorrow.
