In a relief to people during the lockdown, the Maharashtra government has decided to resume intra-district State Transport (ST) bus services, excluding in red zones and COVID-19 containment areas, from today (Friday) with certain conditions. Meanwhile, in an order, the railways said all the tickets of the special trains scheduled to run from June 1 within Maharashtra will be automatically canceled and a full refund will be provided to passengers

The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) in a statement said the ST buses will be run at 50 percent occupancy to meet social distancing norms and services will be available only for limited hours. Red zones and COVID-19 containment areas have been kept out of the routes of these buses. Since the past two months, MSRTC's bus operation has been restricted to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Since the first week of May, the corporation has also ferried over two lakh migrants till Maharashtra's borders with other states and to various districts within the state. As for rising coronavirus cases among the employees of local road transport bus service, BEST in Mumbai, 137 bus drivers and conductors involved in ferrying emergency and essential service staffers, have tested positive of which 8 are deaths and 65 patients have been treated.

Indian Railways has decided booking/cancellation facility of reserved tickets shall also be available at post offices, Yatri Ticket Suvidha Kendra (YTSK) licensees etc. and through authorized agents of IRCTC. Besides this, computerized Passenger Reservation System(PRS) counters of Indian Railways would be available in railway premises/reservation centers and Common Service Centers (CSC) in Mumbai region at Churchgate, Mumbai Central and Vasai Road stations.

In other news,two special trains carrying around 1500 stranded Manipuris from Telangana and Uttarakhand reached Jiribam railway station of Manipur today.

The train from Hyderabad reached this morning while the second train departed from Dehradun reached Jiribam railway station at 6.12 pm today. The screening process of passengers of the first train has already completed and sent to their respective districts for quarantine. However, the screening for the passengers of train from Dehradun is going on till the report is file.

The returnees were provided food packages after the screening at the station and buses were arranged by State government for their transportation to their districts. They will remain isolated for 14 days at quarantine centers.

As the migrants pours in,Manipur State government has decided to open two dedicated Quarantine Centres for stranded transgenders who have come to the State recently from other States.A press note issued by Directorate of Social Welfare Manipur said, the department has come to know that transgenders are facing some inconvenience when they are accommodated in the Institutional Community Quarantine Centres together with either male or female inmates. Therefore, a current Institutional Quarantine Centre located in Imphal East district will be reserved to quarantine those coming from Red Zone. While a centre located in Imphal West district will be reserved for those coming from Green Zone.

It is expected that a total of 40 transgenders may require a separate quarantine facility. The centre at Imphal West district has a capacity of 24 inmates while remaining persons could be accommodated in the another centre. However, the capacity will be enhanced as per the requirement from time to time. The department has also appointed officials to look after these centres.