For govt salary, they ride 165 km on bike from Nashik to Mumbai daily

NASHIK: Every day, Rajaram Patil leaves his home here at 6 am on his motorcycle and rides 165 km due southwest to his office in Bandra, Mumbai. The 52-year-old supply inspector has to ensure food distribution to beneficiaries. At the end of his working day, he rides back home. He reaches late in the night.
The coronavirus outbreak and lockdown has forced around 50 government employees, all engaged in essential services, to keep biking it from the city to Mumbai. In normal circumstances, they would travel to the state capital by train.
“I have to leave home at 6 am to reach my office at 10 am,” Patil says. “Thereafter, I carry on with my duty in Bandra. We cannot sleep in office, because it is occupied by someone or the other. We cannot go to any relative's place either and nobody is giving us a room to stay, because we are exposed to people who could be affected by nCoV.”
Thirty-six of the riders are from the supply department. In the pre-Covid-19 days, they would board the Panchavati Express from the city each morning and reach Mumbai in three hours.
As the lockdown did away with intercity public transport, they now make the journey on bikes, which costs them Rs 600 to Rs 800 each. The cost of car pooling with the current restriction of two passengers and a driver is Rs 2,000 per head.
Dattaram Gosavi, head cook at St George Hospital in Fort, Mumbai, has served at the government facility for 30 years. He was home for two months in the lockdown, but has resumed duty now.
“I travel to Mumbai on alternate days and return home once in two days, so that I get some time to rest,” Gosavi says. He stays at the hospital alternate nights.
Most of these government employees stand to lose a week’s pay if they are not at work thrice a week.
Gopal Naik, an officer with the ITI in Thane, says the government should at least arrange for inter-city buses.
“There is no transport system at all,” the 48-year-old says. “Travelling by a two-wheeler for such a long distance daily is risky, but there are no options.”
Around 1,000 government employees living in the city, Manmad and nearby towns who used to board express trains to reach Mumbai are now demanding some public transport, said sources.
The government employees have raised the issue with the Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee and local MP Hemant Godse.