Indian Railways passenger alert! Platform ticket at this station hiked to Rs 50

In order to ensure that large crowds don’t gather at stations in the midst of coronavirus pandemic, the Indian Railways is taking some unique steps. In the latest move, it has hiked the rate of platform tickets to Rs 50 at the Pune railway station. The railways has been controlling platform ticket rates in a similar manner since the early days of the pandemic. The latest price hike is done in accordance with power delegated by the Railway Board. 

It has been reported that platform tickets rates in all six divisions of the Western Railway—Mumbai, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Ratlam and Bhavnagar—have been increased to Rs 50. 

On Tuesday (August 18), a railway spokesperson tweeted: “The purpose of keeping the platform ticket price at Rs 50 by Pune junction is to check unnecessary crowd at stations so that social distancing can be followed.

“The railway platform has been controlling ticket rates in a similar way since the early days of the pandemic.” 

For those unaware, the railways in 2015 had given the power to divisional railway managers (DRMs) to raise the rate of platform tickets to control rush at platforms in specific conditions.  

The Centre has already taken a number of measures to detect and prevent the spread of Covid-19. Last month, the national transporter had said it ran over 4,000 Shramik Special trains from May 1 to July 9 and ferried more than 63 lakh people to their home states amid coronavirus pandemic.  

Also, all existing demand for such trains were fully met till the mentioned date. 

In a separate development, the Railways will build nearly 4,000-km dedicated freight corridor connecting industrial areas in the eastern and western parts of the country to southern India through major ports in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, a document on the planned corridor says. 

The proposed DFCs are part of the next big ticket infrastructure projects of the Railways.