A day after the Maharashtra government announced stricter lockdown-like restrictions to contain the spread of COVID-19, a huge crowd of migrant workers arrived in Mumbai at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) in Kurla on Wednesday, April 14.
This comes at a time when Mumbai is reeling under an unprecedented second wave of COVID-19.
Amid an alarming spike in the coronavirus cases, talks of a complete lockdown had gained momentum in Maharashtra. As a result, passenger rush has been seen on outstation trains in Mumbai since the last weekend.
The Central Railway (CR) has appealed to people not to panic and avoid crowding the stations. While many believe that people were travelling back home in view of another lockdown, railways say this is the usual summer rush. However, similar crowds have not been witnessed at other railway stations yet, unlike last year.
The Railway Protection Force and the Government Railway Police have deployed additional force outside the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) to control the crowd.
Even though the railways have announced a host of summer special trains, crowds continue to surge at LTT.
On Tuesday also, before the state government's announcement of fresh curbs, a large number of people, especially labourers, had gathered outside the LTT.
Talking to reporters, the Central Railway's chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said people should not panic and avoid crowding the stations. Only passengers having confirmed tickets are permitted to board the special trains and they should reach the stations one-and-a-half hours before the train's departure time.
The Central Railway is constantly monitoring the waiting lists of trains and checking if there a demand for tickets to any particular destination, he added. To dispel all the myths regarding the crowding at the station, he also tweeted a picture to show the live status.
LTT station at 1.30pm pic.twitter.com/Qo0wWpNenf
— Shivaji M Sutar (@ShivajiIRTS) April 14, 2021
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