“The railways will resume suburban services in West Bengal from November 11. With proper security measures, this will improve passenger comfort and facilitate smooth travel for people,” Goyal said in a tweet.
The announcement came after the West Bengal government and the Eastern Railway met on Monday to discuss the resumption of suburban train services, railway sources said.
South Eastern Railways has been given approval to resume services, authorities said.
Officials from Eastern, South Eastern Railways and the West Bengal government met today to prepare the SOP for the implementation of Kolkata’s suburban services.
“The Railways are ready to start their services when the state government is ready with its plan to disperse crowds and control access during peak hours,” said the national carrier.
Earlier on Tuesday, the West Bengal government had requested Eastern Railways (ER) and South Eastern Railways (SER) to operate a sufficient number of suburban trains connecting different nodes to Howrah and Sealdah stations for daily commuters while observing Strictly COVID-19 safety regulations.
According to sources, it was decided that 210 local trains will be in service during office hours, both morning and night, every day. The number of trains will be kept to a minimum for the rest of the day.
Rail authorities had said they were eager to resume suburban train services in the state allowing 50% of the passenger force and ensuring that COVID-19 safety protocols are strictly followed.
Initially, the railway authorities aim to resume operations with 10-20 percent of normal services that will slowly increase to 25 percent, according to the PTI report.
The service had been suspended since March, when a nationwide lockdown was announced in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, West Bengal posted the highest single-day recovery of 4,129 COVID-19 patients on Wednesday, bringing the total number of people cured to 3,46,262, the health department said in a bulletin.
The download rate is now 88.88%.
The death toll rose to 7,068 after 55 more people succumbed to the disease.
The bulletin said 3,987 people tested positive for the infection, bringing the count to 3,897,576.
The number of active cases is currently 36,246.
With contributions from agencies
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