Even as the number of passengers on Mumbai suburban local trains has increased after the COVID-19 restrictions relaxed, the count of citizens travelling without face masks seems to have decreased in October on central and western railways.
Since August 15, the Maharashtra government allowed fully vaccinated citizens to commute in the local trains. However, the Railways had caught many violators who were found flouting COVID-related norms at public places.
In October, 1,395 passengers on the Western Railway (WR) route were fined for traveling without masks. Meanwhile, 1,606 passengers were fined in September and 1,816 in August.
WR has collected a fine of INR 1.64 lakh from people traveling without masks in October.
Moreover, on the Central Railway (CR) route, 240 passengers were fined for traveling without masks in October and a total of INR 48,000 was recovered from them. From January to September, 2,342 passengers were fined on this route.
“The number of people found travelling without without masks has decreased. There has also been a decline in those traveling on fake essential worker identity cards. In addition, we carry out surprise inspections on both the networks and in inside the local trains,” said a senior railway official.
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Despite this the railways have asked officials to step up inspections at its premises. Subhash Gupta, president of the Rail Passengers Council said: “There are images of passengers travelling without facial masks inside local train compartments. As the number of passengers travelling without mask is increasing, the railways and the BMC should conduct a strict check in the premises.”
The Maharashtra government had authorised the GRP to levy fines on passengers traveling in local trains and at railway stations without masks.
As the Maharashtra government relaxed coronavirus restrictions, schools, colleges and places of worships in Mumbai were allowed to reopen.
Meanwhile, recently the railways have decided to run the local train services at 100% capacity from October 28.