About 37 lakh commuters have been taking locals daily since all members of public were allowed to avail services from February 1
Civic health workers check the body temperature and oxygen saturation levels of a passenger at Dadar station on Monday. Pic/Ashish Raje
About 37 lakh commuters have been travelling daily since February 1, when the Railways allowed the general public to avail the services of Mumbai locals, shows the data of the past 15 days. Of the total, about 20 lakh passengers travelled on Central Railway daily, while Western Railway catered to 17 lakh people.
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Air-conditioned local trains on CR continued to see a good response, thanks to less crowd. The sale of tickets for AC locals on CR increased steadily, with a daily average of 696 passengers. On WR, the number of daily passengers remained steady at about 5,000.
Number of commuters fined for not wearing a mask also increased over the period. “In the past 15 days, action has been taken against 2,060 people on CR, with 1,715 being fined at Mumbai CSMT alone. A total of '1,21,600 has been recovered in fines on CR in the first 15 days of February. WR reported more violations, with 2,558 commuters being fined, and the penalty amounted to R3,28,500,” an official said. The official added, “Thousands of commuters were also counselled, as the aim is not to recover fines, but to have public safety at large. Hence, fines are being slapped only in certain cases as a deterrent.”
Officials maintained that the rise in daily COVID-19 cases cannot be solely attributed to local trains, because a crowd has been noticed at other places as well, like markets, in addition to a parallel increase in the number of tests. “We will have to wait for at least one more week for results to emerge,” he added.
However, it is equally true that unlike Delhi Metro, Mumbai locals don’t have a cap on passengers per coach.
Also, passengers have just been requested to abide by COVID-19 protocols, like physical distancing and mandatory use of masks. These rules have not been enforced due to the sheer volume of passengers.
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