Mumbai: Restart thermal checks at stations, say commuter bodies

A health care worker checks the temperature of a passenger at Dadar railway station. File pic

With the city seeing a consistent rise in daily COVID-19 cases, passenger associations have called on the Railways and local authorities to restart thermal checks at railway stations across the city as they are the entry points for passengers from other states. According to commuter bodies, this would be a better move than enforcing strict restrictions at a later time when cases would have already increased a lot.

"Now is the right time to conduct checks at entry points of stations. Just a drive to ensure people are wearing masks is not enough. Instead of enforcing restrictions on train services at a later time, it will be better to be careful now," said Subhash Gupta, Yatri Sangh Mumbai leader and member of National Railway Users Consultative Committee.

A number of states has already started to enforce checks and restrictions on railway passengers arriving from Maharashtra. The Railways in a recent note alerted commuters asking them to check the health advisories of respective states before embarking on train journeys to avoid difficulties at the destination stations.

"Thermal checks used to happen at stations but the local authorities stopped them due to some reason. They should be restarted at least at those stations where outstation trains arrive," Gupta appealed.

Another commuter Prakash Joshi said the Railways should resume thermal scans and oximeter readings to be on the safe side. Railway officials said that civic workers usually check passengers at points outside railway stations and it had been resumed at some places. In addition to this, railway officials said that in case of emergencies, they had trained their staff as well ticket checkers to conduct thermal checks and that the whole system had been put on alert. Also, civic beat marshals have been allowed on railway station premises for the mask drive.