Local train services resume in Mumbai after four months

From August 11, the Maharashtra government started issuing universal passes to ensure only eligible commuters, who are fully vaccinated, can get monthly railway passes and crowding in local trains can also be avoided.

Local train services resumed for fully vaccinated citizens from Sunday after a gap of four month. Citizens, who are fully vaccinated for Covid-19 and have completed a gap of 14 days since their second dose of Covid-19 vaccine, are eligible to use local train services by obtaining universal passes.

There was no incident of crowding reported inside local trains and on suburban railway stations early on Sunday morning on both the Central and Western Railways. (HT PHOTO.)

Fully vaccinated citizens can avail only monthly season pass for traveling in local trains. Nearly 1,20,000 monthly season railway passes have been issued to passengers by Central and Western Railway since it was allowed on August 11.

Local train services were suspended for passengers for the second time from April 15, 2021 due to the spike in coronavirus cases in Mumbai and surrounding cities. Train services were resumed for the public with stipulated timings on February 1.

There was no incident of crowding reported inside local trains and on suburban railway stations early on Sunday morning on both the Central and Western Railways.

From August 11, the Maharashtra government started issuing universal passes to ensure only eligible commuters, who are fully vaccinated, can get monthly railway passes and crowding in local trains can also be avoided.

Universal passes embedded with Quick Response (QR) code are being made available to the commuters through both the offline and online system. While the offline system of verification of vaccination certificates and issuing passes was started outside railway stations by municipal bodies, by an online system the passengers can also get their certificate verified and get an e-pass on http://epassmsdma.mahait.org/

Railway authorities have stated that special squad teams consisting of ticket checking staff and Railway Protection Force (RPF) have been deployed for inspection of vaccination certificates and railway passes both by the Central and the Western Railway. Ticket checking inspectors have also been deployed inside local train compartments.

For inspection, Maharashtra Police and Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel have been deployed at all the entry and exit points of the suburban railway stations.