Coronavirus outbreak in India: Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways takes stringent measures to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus COVID-19 infection. In a new initiative, Indian Railways has decided that in order to stop the unnecessary crowding at railway stations, the platform ticket costs will be increased. The Railway Board has directed the divisional railway managers (DRMs) of all Indian Railways zones to increase the platform charges to a uniform rate of Rs 50 at whichever station it is necessary. In this regard, the Central Railways (CR), as well as the Western Railways (WR) zones of the Indian Railways network, have announced that the platform ticket charges for commuters have been increased from Rs 10 to a maximum of Rs 50. This step has been taken so that the overcrowding on the platform and the number of people accessing the area at foot-over-bridges, station and other railway premises, gets significantly reduced. It is a measure to restrict and discourage the presence of a large number of people in a public space.

According to the Western Railways zone, the platform ticket charges have increased at all the major railway stations in all six railway divisions of the WR zone namely, Mumbai, Vadodara, Ratlam, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar. According to the Western Railways zone, the details of the new platform ticket cost charged by the stations of the Mumbai division are as follows:

  • The revised cost of the platform ticket is Rs 50 at the Surat, Bandra (T), Borivali, Udhna, Mumbai Central, Vapi, Dadar, Valsad, Navsari, Andheri, Vasai Road, Boisar, Nandurbar, Bilimora, Amalner, Virar, Palghar, Bandra, Bhayandar, Dahanu Road, Goregaon, Nalasopara, Vyara, Dondaicha, Churchgate and Malad stations.
  • There is no change in the cost of platform tickets at the rest of the station in the Mumbai division.

Similarly, the Central Railways zone has also revised the platform ticket cost at its railway divisions. The platform ticket cost has been increased from Rs 10 to Rs 50 at 174 railway stations of the Central Railways zone. The division wise details are as follows:

  • In the Mumbai division, platform ticket has been revised to Rs 50 at 92 stations
  • In the Bhusawal division, platform ticket has been revised to Rs 50 at 11 stations
  • In the Nagpur division, platform ticket has been revised to Rs 50 at 6 stations
  • In the Pune division, platform ticket has been revised to Rs 50 at 59 stations
  • In the Solapur division, platform ticket has been revised to Rs 50 at 6 stations