Students, women selling perishable items and sportspersons can now travel in Chennai’s suburban trains, as the Southern Railway reportedly added more categories of commuters to the list of essential travel services. Commuters under these categories can use the train services during all times of the day. Students and candidates who are attending examinations and interviews will also be allowed to travel after producing hall tickets and other documents.
The move comes just a day after the Southern Railway announced that women passengers other than essential services staff workers would be allowed to travel in Chennai’s suburban trains during non-peak hours between Monday and Saturday. Women passengers can avail the service from Monday to Saturday between 10.30 am and 4.30 pm, 7.30 pm and 12.00 am, and before 7 am. On Sundays, they are allowed to take suburbans throughout the day. Children upto the age of 12 are also allowed to travel with them during non-peak hours.
While train services were resumed in September and in October, Southern Railway had resumed suburban train services only for essential staff to commute to and from work. In a press release earlier this week, Southern Railway said that it has scaled up the number of suburban services in Chennai to 244 trains per day, which is around 40% of the services offered before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Authorities have requested passengers to follow COVID-19 protocols while traveling, by wearing face masks and maintaining physical distancing. Meanwhile, Chennai reported 489 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, with the state capital now accounting for 2.12 lakh infections. The total number of active cases in Tamil Nadu is at 12,542. Among the fatalities on Sunday, a 54-year old man from Chennai without any chronic illness died of COVID-19 pneumonia, a bulletin said. Of the 11,605 total deaths in the state, Chennai has accounted for 3,816.
With PTI inputs