In a bid to avoid over-crowding at railway premises during the upcoming summer season in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Central Railway zone of Indian Railways has increased the price of platform tickets for passengers at some key stations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Central Railways’ Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Shivaji Sutar, was quoted in a PTI report saying that instead of the previous rate of Rs 10, a platform ticket now costs Rs 50 at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Dadar and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) stations in Mumbai, as well as neighbouring Thane, Panvel, Kalyan and Bhiwandi Road stations.
According to the CPRO, the new rate for platform tickets came into force on 24 February 2021 and this will remain effective till June 15 this year. The decision to increase the price of platform tickets was taken to prevent over-crowding at these railway stations during the summer travel rush, he further added.
According to the report, there has been a surge in daily number of COVID-19 cases in the financial capital since the second week of February. So far, the city of Mumbai has reported more than 3.25 lakh cases of novel coronavirus and more than 11,400 deaths due to the disease.
Last month, the lifeline of Mumbai- local train services were thrown open to all the general public by the national transporter. With Mumbai suburban rail services being resumed for all the public with restricted timings, it was recently reported that every day nearly 36 lakh commuters are using the city’s local rail network. The daily ridership of Mumbai local trains consists of around 19.30 lakh commuters on the Central Railway zone and around 16.50 lakh commuters on the Western Railway zone. After a gap of 320 days, local train services were started in Mumbai on 1 February 2021 with restricted timings for everyone.