Given the public and political pressure, local trains could soon be back, but how will the Railways handle crowds safely? Global public transit think tank World Resources Institute (WRI), that has been conducting studies on the Mumbai suburban railway, said the solution is to redesign existing railway stations after the lockdown for physical distancing.

A research paper authored by Madhav Pai, executive director of WRI India Ross Centre for Sustainable Cities and two of his colleagues, research analyst Leona Nunes and senior manager Lubaina Rangwala, states that attention to station design to create more space for distancing will be the key. It was recently put up in public domain by WRI.