Covid-19 in Mumbai: Cases increase, but no drop in footfall on trains, buses

Passengers wait in a queue for BEST buses, at Juhu depot, on December 31. Pic/Satej Shinde

Even as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is raging like wildfire, the ridership on the city's public transport systems has remained more or less steady, with a daily average of 46.5 lakh commuters taking the local trains and about 28 lakh using BEST buses.

While a large number of employees in the railways, including its workshops, and BEST have reported unwell, there was no clarity on the number as test reports were pending. However, it has not affected public transport services so far, said officials. On Thursday, the Central Railway ferried 25.11 lakh passengers and Western Railway saw 18.93 commuters. There is not much difference in the numbers as yet as compared to that of last month.

Commuters stand on the footboard of a local train, while travelling between Kalwa and Mumbra, on December 20, 2021. Pic/Atul Kamble

Despite the government making it mandatory for only the fully vaccinated to use public transport, there is actually no means of verifying whether a passenger is twice-jabbed, unlike railways where the process is digitised. With about 28 lakh passengers every day, BEST officials said that they now enforce the rule of Universal Pass more stringently and ticket inspectors are posted at depots and inside buses to check passes and vaccine certificates. "Inspectors were posted at major bus depots like Wadala, Colaba and checks were conducted inside buses to check universal pass and double vaccine certificates. BEST chairman Ashish Chemburkar also visited bus stops and appealed to passengers," a BEST spokesperson said.

At present there is no proposal to put any curbs on suburban train travel. However, if needed, the Maharashtra government will take a decision in consultation with the state Covid task force as the network covers the entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region.