Unlock-1: Many services including Metro, School-College closed, no decision to resume

New delhi date. Monday, June 22, 2020

The central government has taken steps to restart several important functions in Unlock-1 that will strengthen the economy. The government has allowed Unlock-1 to open shopping malls, religious places and other establishments with conditions. However Metro, School-College is still closed and no decision has been taken to reopen them. Many sector services are still under the impact of the lockdown. However they are planned to be reopened in the second phase of Unlock starting from July.

Metro services still closed

Metro services in Delhi have been closed since March 22 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a public curfew. The government had approved other transport services but metro services are still closed. A final message in a post on the Delhi Metro's Twitter handle on May 30 said services would be closed for commuters until further notice.

The Home Ministry had said in its guidelines for Unlock-1 that suburban train and metro rail services would remain closed till June 30. Since then all metro cities have suspended these services. Limited suburban services have been launched in Mumbai. Such a train is being run for those involved in essential services.

Schools and colleges closed

Schools and colleges across the country are closed due to the lockdown. Many educational institutions have ventured into online studies. The decision to reopen the schools is expected to be taken in July. However, Union Human Resources Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal had recently stated that the institutes would not open before August. Several school administrations, state and central boards, said the exams scheduled for March have been postponed and will now be held after June 30.

Waiting for the railway service to fully open

Railway service has been started since last month but its full restoration is awaited. Indian Railways gradually resumed train services on May 12 after a 51-day suspension from March 22. Initially it started with 15 pairs of trains.

Initial services connect New Delhi with Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi railway stations. The railways later increased the number of trains to 100.