Mumbai, Jul 1 (IANS): Both the Central Railway and the Western Railway will run a total of 700 services from July 1 to cater to the government employees and staff in other essential services as identified by the Maharashtra government, officials said here on Tuesday.

On the CR, the number of services will be hiked from the existing 200 to 350, including the suburban main line and harbour line.

On the WR, in addition to the 202 services, another 148 will be added, to make a total of 350 from Wednesday.

All these new services will be run as 'fast trains', halting only at major stations.

In addition to the essential staff already permitted to travel by select suburban services, the categories instructed by the Union Home Ministry like defence personnel and employees of the Central government, Income Tax, GST, Customs and Department of Posts, and employees of nationalised banks, Mumbai Port Trust, the judiciary and Raj Bhavan will be permitted to travel in these select suburban services from Wednesday.

These selected suburban services will not be available for general passengers/public and will be strictly for essential staff, as identified by the government.

To ensure adequate social distancing in the coaches, unlike its seating capacity to accommodate about 1,200 persons, only about 700 are to be allowed per train.