Coronavirus scare: Now, maintain 1-mt distance at stations

People in a queue at a CSMT ticket booking counter maintain a distance on Friday

In yet another measure to counter COVID-19, the Central Railway has come up with '1-meter markings' at station ticket counters to maintain social distancing in the queues.

"Social distancing is being maintained by marking lines at safe distance at booking counters of Passenger Reservation System (PRS) centres at various stations of the Central Railway. So far approximately 40 such PRS counters have been covered in Mumbai Division," Central Railway's chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said.

PRS counters are present at all important stations where one books tickets for outstation trains. Railway officials said social distancing is a major factor on crowded stations and advisories are being issued to passengers to avoid non-essential train journeys and to ensure that they do not have fever while they are commencing the journey. "At any point, if a passenger feels that he is having any symptoms, he can contact railway staff for medical attention and further assistance," a railway official said.

To discourage unnecessary travel and prevent the vulnerable category of senior citizens from undertaking unnecessary travels, concessional booking of all tickets except patients, students and divyangjan category is being suspended from March 20 till further orders.

Sanitiser effect

The use of hand sanitisers before the use of breath-analysers is leading to more complications for train drivers and guards as they are failing the test due to positive alcohol content. Breath analyser tests are mandatory for train drivers and guards and railway unions have been asking
authorities to stop the breath-analyser test.

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