Mumbai dabbawalas and staff from foreign consulates and high commissions can travel on local trains that currently operate only for essential services personnel, authorities said Wednesday.
Dabbawalas, the famous lunch box carriers in Mumbai, said last month that there was never a six-month hiatus in the “130-year history of tiffin services,” and demanded access to local trains to resume their services at full capacity. .
Currently, in view of Covid-19 restrictions, only dabbawalas who could reach the southern part of Mumbai on their bicycles could deliver food to office goers.
Now they have expressed their happiness to be able to board the local trains starting Tuesday.
Sumit Thakur, public relations director for Western Railway, said that according to unlocking guidelines issued by the Maharashtra government on September 30, they have allowed dabbawalas to travel on local trains.
“Personnel from foreign consulates and high commissions have also been allowed to travel on local trains, according to directives received from the Ministry of Railways,” he said.
More than 5,000 dabbawalas run the tiffin delivery business in the metropolis.
Before the Covid-19 outbreak, they used to deliver more than two lakh tiffins to office goers on normal business days.
They use commuter trains to ensure that lunch boxes are delivered to the destination on time.
Shivaji Sutar, director of public relations for the Central Railway, said state government issued QR code ID cards will be mandatory for them to travel on local trains, but dabbawalas have requested to be allowed to travel with their identity cards.
“If the Maharashtra government agrees to their demand, we will allow them to travel with their identification cards,” he said.
Subhash Talekar, spokesperson for the Mumbai Dabbawala Association, expressed his happiness at being able to travel on local trains.
“Finally, after more than six months, we can resume our service,” Talekar said, adding that dabbawalas will now contact its customers and ask them to resume tiffin service.
However, he was skeptical about the resumption of services at full capacity amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Before the pandemic, each dabbawala had an average of 20 to 22 clients, but I doubt that all clients will resume service immediately as many people still work from home,” he said.
Another problem is that many housing societies still do not allow outsiders into the facilities, he said.
Talekar said the dabbawalas will start tiffin delivery even with four or five customers initially, as they know it will take some time for things to normalize.
“We are going to follow the Covid-19 safety protocols such as wearing masks and gloves, using disinfectants and maintaining social distance and we will also assure our customers about it,” he said.
Most of the dabbawalas come from the Maval area of Pune in western Maharashtra.
Following the implementation of the closure in March this year, many of them returned to their places of origin in Junnar, Ambegaon, Rajgurunagar, Maval, Haveli, Mulashi and other talukas in the Pune district.
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