Mumbai: With new restrictions in place, railways sees decline in local passenger numbers

People crowd the station at Dadar on February 1 when everyone was allowed on trains. Pic/Ashish Raje

As the new restrictions of 50 per cent attendance at office have come into force, local train passenger numbers on both Central and Western Railway, have started declining since the beginning of this week.

After over 15,000 fresh COVID-19 cases were reported in Maharashtra, the Uddhav Thackeray-led government on Monday reimposed fresh guidelines, extending curbs imposed in containment zones till March 31.

As per the notification, all offices (private and government) have been told to function at 50 per cent capacity and the government has appealed to them to allow employees to work from home as far as possible. It was also warned that any office found violating these restrictions will be closed for a period till the pandemic stays notified as a disaster by the Centre.

Immediate impact

This seems to have had an immediate impact on the passengers of local trains. As per the latest statistics, while the number of daily average passengers in local trains on Western Railway saw a decline from 17,10,815 on March 15 to 16,81,884 on March 16 and to about 16,72,650 on March 17, the number of passengers on Central Railway local trains declined from an average of 21 lakh per day in February to 20 lakh per day starting March 16 after the Maharashtra government guidelines.

Asked what safety precautions and measures had been taken by railways post the new guidelines, Central Railway chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said sanitisation of rolling stock and station areas had been intensified in addition to continuous announcements of dos and don'ts. "Clean-up marshals with the help of municipal staff have been acting against those who don't wear masks. An intensive ticket checking drive against irregular, ticketless travellers was carried out and vendors have been permitted to sell masks in local trains," he added.

Western Railway's chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur said that they had been taking due care from their side. "We are taking all the necessary steps in order to counter the threat of the pandemic and a special team for sanitisation of trains had been formed. In addition to this, we have opened over 300 counters and lifts and escalators so that crowds do not gather at one place to maintain social distancing, etc," he added.

20 lakh
Avg no. of passengers every day on CR from March 16

16,72,650
Approx no. of passengers on WR on March 17

Plastic do, mask lo!

On the occasion of Global Recycling Day, on Thursday, March 18, CR launched the Plastic Lao, Mask Pao campaign, to create awareness on the collection and recycling of plastic. The campaign is being implemented in collaboration with the UNDP, India; the BMC; Hindustan Unilever and Stree Mukti Sanghatana. CR chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said, "To address the growing plastic pollution crisis, CR has installed plastic waste collection kiosks at the CSMT and Dadar railway stations. Passengers can deposit all kinds of plastic waste like bottles, polythene bags, etc. in exchange for a mask."