With restricted travel times, staggered work hours roll in

Even as the state government is under pressure to ask Railways to revise train timings of up to 7am, adjustments are being made by some of the stakeholders and staggered office timings seem to be clocking in. There are workplaces which are revising office timings to as early as 8am from the earlier 10am. Railway sources said that private offices that hadn't hitherto taken much interest in staggering work hours are now being forced into doing a rethink.

Ever since the Maharashtra government embarked on its 'Mission Begin Again', the need for staggered office timings have been mulled by both Railways, and the state government. However, there is no concrete plan of action on its implementation, for fear of reaction from the public, as well as companies. But because of the public being restricted to boarding trains only from the start of services to 7am, then from noon to 4pm and after 9pm, many workplaces have been forced to rethink their working hours.

The time slots have been put in place to avoid crowding in trains, as we continue to be in the midst of a pandemic. However, since there are trains for all now, people prefer commuting by train as it is the quickest way to move in Mumbai. But for the last three days, people have been complaining that they are forced to travel earlier, although their offices are only open by 9.30am or later.