Railways will allow women to travel on suburban trains from October 21: Piyush Goyal

New Delhi: Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said that Railways will allow women to travel on suburban trains from October 21.

“I am happy to announce that Railways will allow women to travel on suburban trains from 21 October between 11 am and 3 pm and after 7 pm. We were always ready and with the receipt of letter from Maharashtra Govt today, we have allowed this travel,” Goyal said in a tweet.

I am happy to announce that Railways will allow women to travel on suburban trains from 21 Oct between 11 am to 3 pm & after 7 pm. We were always ready and with the receipt of letter from Maharashtra Govt today, we have allowed this travel.

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) October 20, 2020

Currently, only those engaged in frontline duties and essential staff as categorised by the Maharashtra government are allowed to travel in the local trains run by the Central Railway and the Western Railway, through a QR code mechanism.

The Maharashtra government on October 16 requested the Railways to allow women to commute by local trains during the non-peak hours – from 11 am to 3 pm, and from 7 pm till the end of the day’s services.