Metro services in Chennai will resume with 50 per cent capacity after the Tamil Nadu government announced more relaxations in lockdown norms for 27 districts starting Monday. Similarly, intra and inter-district bus (non-airconditioned) services will also become operational in four districts including Chennai with 50 per cent seat occupancy, the government announced in a statement on Sunday.
This comes after a gap of 42 days of lockdown-like restrictions that were imposed to control the Covid-19 outbreak during the second wave of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the state government has retained the lockdown in the state for another week, till June 28. In the latest order, the state government categorised 38 districts into three separate groups for the purpose of easing curbs. The government allowed more relaxations for 23 districts in the second category and four districts in the third slot got the most relaxations that include the resumption of bus services.
Meanwhile, schools, colleges and universities will remain closed for regular classes.
With a spike in daily cases of Covid-19, the state government clamped a lockdown from May 10 and most services including public transportation came to a halt.
On May 21, Tamil Nadu recorded its highest single-day spike of daily cases as 36,184 cases contracted the disease in 24 hours. Since then the cases began to gradually decrease. In view of this, the government has been reopening economic activities in a phased manner.
{{/usCountry}}On May 21, Tamil Nadu recorded its highest single-day spike of daily cases as 36,184 cases contracted the disease in 24 hours. Since then the cases began to gradually decrease. In view of this, the government has been reopening economic activities in a phased manner.
{{/usCountry}}Continuing the declining trend, Tamil Nadu logged 7,817 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, pushing the caseload to 2.42 million, while 182 deaths took the toll to 31,197.