Machine facilitators will work in two shifts to cater to rush in peak hours, ensure only fully jabbed get tickets
Passengers wait in a long queue to book tickets at Diva station on January 6. File pic
Automatic ticket vending machines have made a comeback at stations on the Central Railway. The zonal railways on Wednesday announced that the machines would restart with facilitators for fully vaccinated commuters, as per crowd requirement.
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Last week, mid-day had highlighted how crowding at ticket booking offices was leading to issues. While Western Railway already has about 60 ATVM machines operating with validators, Central Railway had none, leading to crowding at ticket counters. Passenger associations had said that the resumption of machines to full strength would ease the burden on booking counters and lessen the queues.
As per the note issued by Central Railway, facilitators will work in two shifts to cater to the rush in peak hours and will be mobilised as per traffic requirement at the stations. Officials said facilitators were mandatory because, as per the prevailing guidelines of the state government, only fully vaccinated commuters have been allowed to travel on local trains. While there is a provision for the same on the mobile ticketing app, facilitators are required to ensure that tickets are issued only to the fully vaccinated commuters.
“There will be random inspections, and surprise checks will be conducted on the functioning of facilitators deployed to ensure that they issue tickets to fully vaccinated passengers only,” a senior official said. As per latest statistics, daily passenger numbers on Mumbai suburban trains were touching nearly 65 lakh, with about 35 lakh on Central Railway and 29 lakh on Western Railway. The figures are just about 15 lakh less than that of pre-COVID statistics.
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