E-Paper
PMC gets poor passenger response for offline railway passes
PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is getting a poor response from fully vaccinated commuters in terms of procuring offline railway passes for travel by local trains in the Pune region
PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is getting a poor response from fully vaccinated commuters in terms of procuring offline railway passes for travel by local trains in the Pune region.
Rajendra Renegade, assistant municipal commissioner of the Shivajinagar-Ghole road ward office, said, “We have provided training to staff on how to issue certificates to railway commuters as per the state government order. The offline process started immediately after August 15. However we are getting poor response with our staff issuing about 10 to 12 passes on a daily basis. We have deputed 16 primary teachers across the two timing slots. Passes include monthly and regular passes.”
After the chief minister allowed citizens who have completed vaccination against covid-19 (including 14 days after the second dose) to travel by local train from August 15, the process was facilitated both online and offline. However, as the online process would take more time, the offline process was started on a priority basis. Accordingly, the PMC set up two help desks – one at Pune and the other at Shivajinagar railway station – and started the offline process on August 17 itself. The help desks are operational all seven days of the week from 7am to 1pm and 1pm to 7pm.
Sunil Indulkar, deputy municipal commissioner, said, “Till date, we have issued nearly 200 passes to railway passengers. The state government has started an online service to issue ‘universal travel passes’. However, we are providing offline passes to those who are not used to the online process.”
While there are 42 local trains operating to- and fro- between Pune and Lonavala with around 70,000 to 80,000 commuters travelling daily under normal circumstances, there are presently only eight local trains from Pune to Lonavala and Lonavala to Pune, that too for emergency services, with only around 4,000 commuters travelling on a daily basis. A minimum 50% of these commuters are monthly pass holders.
Harsha Shah, president, Railway Pravasi Group, said, “Due to limited local train services, the numbers of travellers is less as compared to normal situations.
