Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday announced that all women passengers will be allowed to travel in local trains in Mumbai and suburbs from Wednesday.

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.

On Tuesday morning, Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar asked the railway authorities to consider its request “at the earliest”.

Later, taking to Twitter, Mr Goyal said, “I am happy to announce that Railways will allow women to travel on suburban trains from 21 Oct between 11 am to 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.”

The Western Railway and the Central Railway are as of now collectively operating around 700 local train services every day on their suburban network.