Advertisement

Railway passengers arriving in Mumbai have found an innovative way to avoid the COVID test

In addition to it, passengers had also raised concerns over the manner in which these tests are being conducted at the city airport and railways. The commuters have been complaining about chaos, violation of social distancing norms.

Railway passengers arriving in Mumbai have found an innovative way to avoid the COVID test
SHARES

Last month, the Maharashtra government announced compulsory COVID-19 RT-PCR test for passengers travelling from Delhi, Rajasthan, Goa and Gujarat. However, it has been observed that the passengers have found a new way to avoid getting a COVID-19 test at Mumbai railway stations and even escape checking in case they don't have a coronavirus negative report.

According to reports, just before the train reaches their destination stations, passengers pull the chain and get off, even though it's illegal to force-stop the train in a non-emergency situation. On both the Central and Western railway sections a total of 63 such incidents have been reported over the past 10 days.

This occurrence came to light when the railway authorities noticed that the number of stops has been increased in the daily route.

About 36 such incidents took place on the Western Railway in the last 10 days. Moreover, 14 such incidents had occurred from November 15 to 24.

A large number of passengers from Gujarat, Delhi and Rajasthan alight at Western Railway stations -- Borivali, Dadar, Bandra Terminus and Mumbai Central Terminus.

About nine incidents took place near Borivli station, four near Mumbai Central station, four near Palghar station and two near Boisar station. Similarly, 27 such incidents took place on the Central Railway section and most of them happened near Thane, Kalyan, Kurla LTT and Kasara stations.

In addition to it, passengers had also raised concerns over the manner in which these tests are being conducted at the city airport and railways. The commuters have complained that there is chaos at the testing booth and even social distancing norms are not adhered to. Furthermore, the test reports take two to five days to come.

Even the Mumbai airport had witnessed less number of passengers taking the test in the first week of the implantation of the rule. This new rule has been implemented since November 25, 2020, but the railways and airport officials are unable to ensure testing for all. As per the rules, everyone arriving in Mumbai without a negative RT-PCR test report from their departure point has to get a test done at their own cost.

Read more: Only 1,565 passengers took COVID-19 test at Mumbai airport

RELATED TOPICS
Advertisement
MumbaiLive would like to send you latest news updates