The Western Railway (WR) has mentioned that Government employees will need to show a QR code pass before entering a railway station in Mumbai. This rule will be made mandatory starting July 20, following concerns regarding social distancing onboard trains. It is said that this will be applicable to all railway stations that come under Western Railway’s umbrella. However, Central Railway is yet to take a call on this matter.
A senior WR division officer said to Mid-Day - "There have been concerns about social distancing onboard trains and the railways have been trying to work out solutions to streamline the crowds. The government and the BMC, in association with the Mumbai police, have been working on preparing QR code passes to be given out to essential services workers. The process of updating the database is in its last stages and it should be completed in a week. This is in addition to having staggered office timings to limit crowds onboard trains,"
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It is said that this will be in eventually merged with the UTS ticketing system. In the meanwhile, a proposal has been reportedly sent to the Railway Board to see this through.
QR code embedded passes were introduced as part of the 2016-17 Central Railway Budget and were announced by the Union Railway Minister at the time, Suresh Prabhu.
A barcode or QR code ticket is considered safer, and harder to duplicate given that each code contains unique details like fare, ticket number, train type, date of journey, number of adults, number of children, source and destination stations, stock number, as well as class code. Illegal printing of older tickets was resulting in massive losses to the railways’ earnings leading to the authorities taking this step.
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