Mumbai local trains for all likely in first week of Jan: Maharashtra minister

Maharashtra saw 3,431 new infections on Friday, taking the tally to 1,913,382

As the pandemic situation seems to be under control, the Maharashtra government plans to restart local train services for all in the first week of January 2021.

Currently, the local trains are accessible only to people from essential services that have been issued special QR codes. (HT FILE)

Relief and rehabilitation minister Vijay Wadettiwar on Friday said he had spoken to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and he was positive about opening the railway services in the next eight-10 days. However, a decision would be taken only after reviewing the pandemic situation. “With the risk of the spread of the new variant of the virus, we will have to be careful while taking any decision about railway services for all. When we allowed women commuters in non-peak hours in September, the crowding at stations was beyond control,” he said.

Wadettiwar said a letter has already been given to the Railways for their nod, but the final call has to be taken by the state government. “The decision will depend entirely on the situation in the next 8-10 days. There should not be a problem in opening up trains for all if the cases remain low. We will hold a review meeting in the first week of January and decide,” he said.

According to an official from the relief and rehabilitation department, the local services would not be opened for all, but a few segments of commuters will be allowed to travel in non-peak hours. The official said like women are allowed to commute from 11am to 3pm and 7pm till midnight, men may be allowed early morning. Currently, the local trains are accessible only to people from essential services that have been issued special QR codes.

Meanwhile, keeping the trend of steady fall in the daily caseload over the past four weeks, Maharashtra saw 3,431 new infections on Friday, taking the tally to 1,913,382. The daily average caseload has dropped to 3,579 in 25 days of December, from 4,702 in the corresponding period in November.

With the addition of 71 new deaths, the toll has touched 49,129, as the case fatality rate (CFR) of the state still remains high at 2.57% against the national rate of 1.45%. In Mumbai, 596 new cases and 11 deaths were reported on Friday, taking the tally to 2,89,800 and toll to 11,056.

Meanwhile, Pune and Nagpur districts retained their second and third positions after Mumbai, in reporting the daily cases with the addition of 566 and 378 cases, respectively. The number of active patients has dropped to 56,823 with highest, 14,145, in Pune.

The positivity rate in the state has dropped significantly over the past few weeks. It has been 5.80% in 24 days of December, against 7.68% in November and 13.47% in October. With the drop in the positivity rate, the daily average testing too has dropped to 61,868 in December, from 63,166 in November and 70,393 in October.

“We have been taking due precautions about international passengers coming from countries like the UK, Europe to ensure there is no spread of the new variant of the virus. Our projections about the rise in the cases in the first week of December after Diwali have proved to be wrong, as people took due care. A similar risk hovers in the second week of January, about two weeks after Christmas. If the number of cases continues to be at this level, it will mean that we have managed to control the spread,” said Dr Avinash Supe, who heads the state-appointed death audit committee.

Dr Supe said the number of tests is being done in accordance with the infection rate, which has currently dropped significantly. “If we have 500 cases in Mumbai, and if their 15 contacts are traced and tested, the number of tests would not exceed 7,500, which is fine,” he added.