Centre to issue guidelines on Wednesday after meeting officials of 15 Metro corporations

The ministry of housing and concrete affairs on Tuesday held a gathering with metro companies to finalise the usual working procedures (SOP) for working metro providers allowed beneath ‘Unlock 4’ pointers, that are more likely to be issued on Wednesday following the house ministry’s nod, officers conscious of the event mentioned.

The assembly on Tuesday chaired by city housing ministry’s secretary Durga Shankar Mishra was attended by the managing administrators of 15 metro rail companies, officers mentioned.

The residence ministry on Saturday issued pointers for the fourth section of an train to elevate restrictions imposed to cease the unfold of the coronavirus illness (Covid-19), saying that metro rail providers can resume in a graded method from September 7.

“As informed earlier, Metro Rail operations have been allowed w.e.f. 7th September, 2020. The SOPs already circulated were discussed today through VC by D.S Mishra, Secretary, MOHUA with MD’s of various Metro companies. The suggestions were considered in the VC meeting and accordingly SOPs are being finalised. MOHUA minister Sh Hardeep S Puri, will be announcing SOPs/guidelines in this regard on 2nd September,” ministry spokesperson Rajeev Jain mentioned.

The pointers issued the house ministry mentioned that the usual working process (SOP) for this will probably be issued by the ministry of housing and concrete affairs.

“We discussed the broad outline of the guidelines today. The same will need to be discussed and finalised with the home ministry tomorrow (Wednesday) and issued by afternoon. We heard suggestions of metro managing directors, which will be considered and accordingly the SOP will be finalised. The final guidelines will be announced by the minister on Wednesday,” an official a part of the assembly mentioned.

Corporations have been requested to arrange an inventory of stations the place trains will start operations in session with the state governments.

Passengers should observe strict pointers on carrying masks and working towards social distancing norms failure of which can lead to fines, officers mentioned.

Passengers travelling in metro trains are additionally not going to be allowed to make use of tokens anymore because the Centre has plans of implementing a contactless ticketing system utilizing solely metro playing cards, as soon as restrictions on public transport are lifted, Hindustan Times had reported on April 30.

The metro rail corporations are additionally free to impose their very own restrictions primarily based on the situation of the virus within the area, officers had instructed HT earlier. “Broadly we may have few stoppages and open the stations in a phase-wise manner, there will mandatory thermal screening, face masks, social distancing, contact-less ticketing etc, which will have to be practiced,” an official conscious of the event had mentioned.

The new norms on resumption of metro rail are more likely to embody contact-less ticketing by means of metro playing cards, enhance within the common stoppage time at every station, markings for queues throughout all stations to manage crowds and sustaining social distancing and an overhaul within the air-con system contained in the trains to make sure provide of contemporary air.

In addition to this, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which supplies safety to Metros, has chalked out protocols to make sure clean and contactless journey within the time of the Covid-19 pandemic.