Mumbai: For travel from Sunday, buy monthly railway pass from today

MUMBAI: Ahead of the reopening of local trains for those fully vaccinated on August 15, the state government has laid down SOPs that allow only monthly season passes to be issued to them. Single/return tickets or longer duration passes will not be issued.
Also, while the portal for a QR code-embedded pass is still being put together, offline verification desks will be set up across 109 stations in MMR from August 11. Of these, 358 counters will be set up at 53 stations within Mumbai limits.

These counters will be operational from 7am to 11pm on all days, and will be run by local civic bodies. As per the BMC, citizens who have completed 14 days after the second dose must carry a hard copy of the final vaccination certificate and original photo ID (preferably Aadhaar card) for verification along with a photocopy of the ID.
Once the help desk verifies the vaccination status, they will stamp the vaccine certificate and the photocopy of the ID. These will have to be furnished while buying a monthly season ticket from the booking counter. “Travelers are to carry all three documents - monthly pass, stamped vaccination certificate and photo ID copy while travelling," said an official.
“This offline process of issuing monthly season passes will continue on all seven days of the week till further orders and therefore citizens need not rush to the railway stations,” said BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal. "Government is starting trains due to the hardships faced by the working class in reaching their workplace. The idea behind giving only monthly passes is to discourage people who want to undertake unnecessary travel," said a senior official.
There are nearly 24 lakh people from MMR who are fully vaccinated as on Monday, but less than 20 lakh would have completed 14 days to be eligible for travel. Besides, a large number of them are healthcare workers and frontline workers who are already travelling.
"There will be a monthly review by the state regarding number of cases reported since the start of the service and a periodic decision to continue with issuing of monthly passes again will be taken based on the Covid-19 situation," said a senior official. The online portal which is being put together and linked to CoWin for verification will require a few more days to be functional.
Officials said the SoP has been laid down only for the general public. Other categories who are already allowed to board local trains like healthcare workers, government staff and frontline workers can continue to travel as per procedure, using their ID cards, and can get tickets daily as well.
The government expects all passengers entering railway premises to be screened for relevant documents at least till August 31, after which police may switch to random checks. Checks outside the station will be done by state police and government railway police and on railway premises by railway staff. “Assistance from local police will be sought for a few days till the process is streamlined,” said an official
(With inputs by Manthan K Mehta)