Can resume suburban trains for public, waiting for govt nod: Central Railways

Central Railway General Manager Sanjeev Mittal said Friday the rail administration was ready to run suburban trains for the general public, but was waiting for a go-ahead from the state government. He said the state government had some legitimate concerns about crowding in the trains and hence, was opting for a graded reopening of train operations in the state.

He said most trains the central railway operates had commenced operations in one way or the other and soon operations will fully normalise as the local government allows the railway to open up the services for general public. He said out of the total 1774 trains operated by CR before the lockdown, 1580 have resumed operations, although with some restrictions.

“We have good co-ordination with the state government. It’s opting for graded normalisation of train services. Speaking of suburban operations, it has so far allowed persons belonging to 20 categories to use them. On our part, we are ready to open suburban services for the general public and the services will start as soon as we get a go ahead from the state government,” said Mittal.

Mittal addressed mediapersons in Pune after conducting an annual inspection in the Pune Division under which he visited Kolhapur and Miraj to review the infrastructural progress in the area.

Railway officials said the Pune-Daund-Pune DEMU (Diesel-Electric Mechanised Unit) service, which remains suspended till today, will resume its operations for essential workers in a short while.

Mittal said that like elsewhere in the Indian Railways, Pune Division too has undertaken big infrastructural works during the lockdown, making the most of the halt in operations. In the Pune Division, 19 major infrastructural works were completed during the lockdown which included launching of steel girders for foot over bridges and road over bridges, replacing level crossing with subways, reconstructing old and weakened structures and overhaul of hydraulic bridges.