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Mumbai Local: State Government To Soon Announce 'Universal Travel Pass' With QR Code For Travelling

As per reports, the new method has been suggested by the officials to control the number of fake ID cards which are being used by passengers to travel in the Mumbai Local Train. The use of such IDs have increased during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Mumbai Local: State Government To Soon Announce 'Universal Travel Pass' With QR Code For Travelling
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Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the city of Mumbai have been reducing for the last few weeks and the citizens have been able to resume activities as per the unlock guidelines issued by the state government. However, despite the drop in cases, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has not permitted the Mumbai local train services to resume  for the general public. As of now, only employees working in the essential services are allowed. 

The Municipal Corporation has received several requests regarding the same demanding the services to resume for everyone. On the other hand, the railways department has also identified several citizens who have been travelling in the Mumbai local trains using fake tickets and ID cards. To control the same, the state government has taken an important decision as the number of such incidents have increased over time, eventually leading to more congestion and crowding in the local train.

Also Read: Local trains for all will not start immediately, says BMC chief

To tackle this situation, the government has decided to implement a pass system with QR code. Called as the Universal Travel Pass and the QR code pass, this will be issued only to employees of the essential and emergency services, who will have access to the railway station only with this identity card. Furthermore, passes with QR codes will be checked using a smartphone or QR reader machine and this is expected to help identify travellers with fake identities.

Besides this, the QR code system will add pressure on those traveling on fake IDs and this will eventually reduce the number of commuters. Emergency and essential service personnel can get a pass with QR code  at the railway station. 

Sharing more information, the Free Press Journal quoted a senior railway official and reported, “The difference between the QR code identity cards this time and the one introduced earlier is that now, there will be a photograph of the person in the ID card. Our staff will scan these QR coded cards. However, the difficulty is monitoring commuters during peak hours - it becomes difficult to scan everyone entering the station, as it would cause crowding.”

Also Read: Mumbai Local Trains will not resume for the public until COVID-19 pandemic ends: Vijay Wadettiwar

Travel using the passes has been categorised under multiple levels, basis which one can commute during the level of restriction imposed by the government. In case a pass mentions level 3, the passenger can travel during first, second or third level of restrictions. Moreover, firms will have to reach out to the Disaster Management Authority if they wish to apply for the ID cards with QR codes. Information regarding the employee, role, and organisation will have to be submitted for the officials to decide on issuing the pass.

A letter has been sent to the Director General of Central and Western Railways for the same and the decision is yet to be taken. However, once implemented, officials expect this method to be successful in reducing the number of fake IDs used for travelling. As of now, more than 3000 passengers with such IDs have been caught by the officials from Central Railway. The report published by the Free Press Journal mentioned that a sum of INR 15 lakh has been collected as fine from 750 people. Meanwhile, INR 1.09 crore have been collected from over 30,000 passengers who were travelling without the ticket in June 2021.

Also Read: Mumbai Local Trains: CCTV, panic buttons to be installed soon

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