Covid-19 scare doesn’t deter people from travelling

Nagpur: Even as coronavirus has spread its wings in the district, people have decided to travel, especially after the state government issued Unlock-4 guidelines allowing inter-district travel from September 1.
On day-1 after the travel restrictions were lifted after 5 months, around 70 passengers, including 49 from Nagpur, travelled to Mumbai from Nagpur by Howrah-Mumbai Mail. Of these, one passenger travelled in AC-I, three in AC-II, eight in AC-III and 37 in sleeper class coaches.
“Most of those travelling in sleeper class coaches on Thursday were migrants leaving for Mumbai for taking jobs. There were sizeable numbers of passengers from Howrah end too. The number of passengers is expected to increase,” said railway officials.
After granting travel relief by state government, this was the first lot of passengers travelling within the state by train. These travellers must have booked ticket a day ago on September 2, when reservation was allowed. Earlier, this train used to run daily but has been converted into weekly due to opposition by West Bengal government.
Even the MSRTC has increased number of buses from 20 to 125 now. “On August 20, when inter-district transport was allowed, we operated 20 buses, but on Thursday, we operated 140 buses. The revenue has also increased from Rs1.5 lakh to Rs8 lakh. Buses to Pune (two trips) are also getting good response,” said Nilesh Belsare, divisional controller, Nagpur.
“Considering 50% capacity of 22 seats, all buses are getting these many passengers to all directions in Vidarbha now. This indicates that despite spread of Covid-19 people have kept their option open to travel,” said Belsare.