Published 11:49 IST, August 29th 2020
West Bengal govt requests Railway Ministry to resume local train & metro services
West Bengal government has requested the Railway Board to resume Metro and local train services in a limited manner while maintaining social distancing.
Advertisement
The West Bengal government requested the Railway Board on Friday to resume metro and local train services in the state in a limited manner while maintaining physical distancing among passengers and after consultation with the state government on modalities and logistics. West Bengal home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay wrote a letter to the Railway ministry expressing the state government’s views.
“This is to bring to your notice that state government is of the view that metro and local train services can be resumed in Bengal in a limited manner maintaining the norms of physical distancing and health hygiene protocols,” Bandyopadhyay’s letter read.
Here is the letter to the Railway Board
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said on Wednesday that the state has no issues with resuming local train and metro rail services. Flight services were also allowed to resume from six cities to Kolkata that had been suspended since July 6 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“From September 1, flight services to Kolkata from the six cities may resume and can operate on three days,” Banerjee said after a cabinet meeting.
Flights to Kolkata from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai and Ahmedabad were suspended from July 6 as the state government stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The dates of resumption were extended multiple times since then.
Mamata Banerjee extends lockdown in West Bengal
With the state consistently reporting over 2500 new Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases daily, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced that current lockdown measures will be extended till September 20. She announced that the state will follow total shutdown on September 7,11 and 12. She added that Educational institutes too will remain closed till September 20, amid the ongoing row with the Centre on conducting NEET/JEE (Main) exams.
The recovery rate of COVID-19 patients in West Bengal reached 80.86% on Friday after 3,286 people were discharged from various hospitals of the state, a bulletin issued by the health department said. So far, 1,24,332 people have recovered from the disease in West Bengal, it said.
The death toll rose to 3,073 after 56 more people succumbed to COVID-19, while the state's caseload went up to 1,53,754 as 2,982 fresh cases of infection were reported. The number of active cases is now 26,349.
Updated 11:49 IST, August 29th 2020