Platform ticket price hike fails to keep away visitors

There were no takers for platform tickets at the Gurugram railway station on Wednesday after the Northern Railways increased the price of platform tickets from ₹10

There were no takers for platform tickets at the Gurugram railway station on Wednesday after the Northern Railways increased the price of platform tickets from ₹10 to ₹50 to discourage people from travelling to the railway station amid the coronavirus outbreak. Visitors, however, were seen purchasing ordinary class tickets to New Delhi station, which cost ₹10, instead of a platform ticket that cost five times more.

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Station officials said there was little change in the number of people who visited the station on Wednesday.

Kishan Yadav, a resident of Sector 10, said, “I have come to receive my father, who is coming from Jaipur. When clicking on the platform ticket option on the electronic ticket vending machine, I was shocked to see it was costing ₹50. It was then that I decided to buy a ticket up to New Delhi, which cost ₹10.”

The chief ticket officer at Gurugram railway station said that as the cost of platform tickets was raised, people are buying ordinary class tickets to nearby destinations — ₹15 to Rewari and ₹20 up to New Town, Faridabad.

Gurugram railway officials said that around 28 trains halt at the station and has a footfall of 60,000 commuters daily. “The number of people coming to the station hasn’t come down despite the cost of platform tickets being hiked,” said Sunil Sachdeva, the chief ticket inspector.

Sachdeva said that on average, around 100 people are penalised daily for entering the platforms without a platform ticket. “On Wednesday, not a single platform ticket was sold, but the number of people buying tickets till New Delhi, for ₹10, increased tenfold,” said Sachdeva.

The penalty for not having a platform ticket has also been raised from ₹250 to ₹300, said officials. Also, the validity of a platform ticket is for four hours, but ordinary tickets are valid for 24 hours, a railway official said.

Gurugram railway station has made no provisions to screen passengers or other safety measures, such as placing hand sanitisers. “We don’t have the funds to provide sanitisers to commuters,” said Sachdeva.

An official of the railways, on the condition of anonymity, said that they are yet to be provided with even face masks.

On Tuesday evening, Northern Railways increased the price of platform ticket at railway stations from ₹10 to ₹50. “Delhi Division has taken an initiative of increasing the price of platform tickets from ₹10 to ₹50 per person from March 18 at all important railway stations of Delhi division, till further notice (sic),” read the press release of Northern Railways.

SC Jain, divisional railway manager, Delhi, said, “The decision has been taken due to the outbreak of Covid-19, so that rush at railway stations is minimised.”