Kolkata, November 2: The West Bengal Government and the Eastern Railways met on Monday to discuss about the restoration of the local train services in the state.  Reportedly, after the meeting with the state government, the Eastern Railways has given consent to start the railway services while following the COVID- 19 safety protocols and with half occupancy. An  official said on Monday,"Railways plan to start local train services in Bengal allowing  50 per cent of passenger strength, maintaining COVID safety protocols." Swapan Dasgupta Writes to Piyush Goyal, Asks Him to Resume Local Train Services in West Bengal Before Durga Puja.

 The meeting was announced on Sunday, a day after the Mamta Banerjee government wrote a letter to the Eastern Railways for discussing the resumption of railway services in the state. Home Secretary H K Dwivedi had written to the General Manager of the Eastern Railway in this regard. This comes, days after, protesters outside the Howrah Railway Station were allegedly, beaten up by the railway police for demanding the permission to travel on a special patrol train that was running for the railway workers.  West Bengal Local Trains Update: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Writes to Piyush Goyal, Seeks Resumption of Services.

Indian Railways completely shut down its services in the starting of the COVID-19 lockdown for precaustionary measures. Some of the  railway services, however, were restored in phases. The local train services have been started in Maharashtra and are likely to resume by mid-November in Tamil Nadu.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 02, 2020 08:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).