Maharashtra: Rail restrictions come back to haunt travellers

Passengers in Bhuj Express wait for the train to depart at Dadar station. Pic/Ashish Raje

Railway restrictions are back to haunt passengers. As COVID-19 cases surge, a number of states have enforced guidelines and restrictions on train travel and passengers from Maharashtra. This week, the railways issued fresh regulations to passengers to check health advisories of destination states. While a few states have sought compulsory RT-PCR tests and COVID-19 negative reports, some have been thermal screening outstation commuters on arrival.

Check travel rules
A senior official said, "Some states have made negative RT-PCR tests mandatory 72 to 96 hours before the train's arrival. Passengers are often caught unawares due to the lack of knowledge about guidelines, resulting in hardships at destination stations at the last minute. Therefore, passengers are requested to check health advisories and guidelines issued by the destination states before undertaking the journey."

Since Maharashtra, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Chhattisgarh have been reporting a higher number of cases, a few states such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have decided to keep a check on those who are coming from neighbouring states by roads and trains.

Apart from setting up border check posts at entry points, the Gujarat government has also decided to start screening passengers arriving at major railway stations like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Bhavnagar.

The Rajasthan state government had initially just included Maharashtra and Kerala, but in a fresh advisory on March 6, they included other states too. "International travellers arriving at airports have been mandated to undergo tests and the authorities should also set up local test centres outside major railway stations and create awareness about it," Rajesh Sethiya, a passenger said.

Advisory ‘misleading'
Rail commuters complained that the train travel advisory pop-up that opens up after opening the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website has not yet been updated with the latest state-wise advisories and is misleading. For example, the latest update on the IRCTC pop-up for Rajasthan is of June 2020 and that for Gujarat is of May 2020, the one for Maharashtra is of November 2020 and for Kerala is of May 2020. Railway officials said they would convey it to team IRCTC.

72
No. of hours before arrival that people must have -ve report