The Indian Railways on Monday resumed some suburban trains in Mumbai for people engaged in essential services as defined by the Maharashtra government. General passengers, however, will not be allowed to travel. The first such train left from Virar for Churchgate on Monday morning, PTI reported.

“It has been decided to run selected suburban services over mainline and harbour lines [with effected from] June 15 with defined protocol [and standard operating procedure], only for movement,” the Central Railway and the Western Railway said in a tweet. “Essential staff as identified by the state government who are travelling by selected suburban trains are requested to travel with valid tickets to avoid inconvenience.”

The Western Railway will run 73 pairs of suburban services including eight pairs between Virar and Dahanu Road, PTI reported. “Maximum services will run between Churchgate and Virar, but few will also run up to Dahanu Road,” the railways said.

The the trains will from 5.30 am to 11.30 pm at an interval of about 15 minutes. Entry to the railway stations will be allowed after checking the identity cards of employees, and only 700 passengers will be allowed in a train as against a seating capacity of about 1,200 people.

The partial resumption of suburban train services is expected to benefit around 1.25 lakh employees of essential services of the state government. The railways has asked the state government to stagger the office timings of their employees to ensure there is no crowding at the stations.

Maharashtra on Sunday recorded 3,390 new coronavirus cases, taking the tally of infections in the state to 1.07 lakh, while the toll from the disease rose to 3,950. The state is the worst-affected from the outbreak in the country.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said 1,395 Covid-19 cases and 79 deaths were reported from Mumbai on Sunday. The total number of cases in the city is now at 58135, including 2,190 deaths.