They will help waiting passengers to be in isolation; they can wait for up to 12 hours in capsules that will be divided into two types -- classic and suite
Classic pods will accommodate one passenger. Pic/istock
You could soon rest as cosy as a pea in a pod at Mumbai CSMT and Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Terminus. Keeping isolation in mind due to COVID-19, the Central Railway will be creating sleeping pods for waiting passengers at these stations.
"Going by the global travel patterns, isolated sleeping pods will be much in demand with passengers. These will prove to be very helpful in these days of social distancing," a senior railway official said.
A senior divisional official said the pods at Mumbai CSMT will be 131.61 sq metres in length and located at the existing linen room, on the ground floor of the parcel building, also besides the ladies waiting room; and at Kurla LTT they will be about 269.42 sq metres in size located above the Passenger Reservation System adjacent to the IRCTC Jan Aahar cafe.
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A passenger's bag being disinfected with Godrej Protekt spray
A year ago before the pandemic begun, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation was in the process of building first such pods on the first floor of Mumbai Central station, which was supposed to come up by December 2020.
The plan was to convert two non air-conditioned waiting rooms into a pod hotel, with small and ultra-modern capsules or pods. The service will provide overnight accommodation to passengers.
As per details available now, there are plans to construct 30 such capsules in which passengers can stay up to 12 hours. A lounge, cafeteria, changing areas and washrooms will also be created. The capsules will be divided into two types — classic and suite.
The classic pods will accommodate one passenger and will have baggage space, locker, charging sockets. The suite pods will be equipped with facilities such as Wi-Fi, personal lockers and will consist of larger beds.
Godrej CSR on city locals
Godrej Protekt on Thursday announced their partnership with the Central Railway to distribute 2 lakh hand sanitiser sachets and on-the-go disinfectant sprays covering 400 local and long-distance special trains. The sachets will be distributed among passengers on Central Railway local trains as well as long-distance trains originating from Mumbai for cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, Lucknow, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Gorakhpur, Darbhanga, and Gadag. The disinfectant spray will be used in long-distance trains on hard surfaces like passenger's luggage along with handles, seats, armrests, door handles. Surroundings and surfaces of ticket booking counters of 53 CR stations in Mumbai and 87 ticket booking counters between CST-Karjat, Panvel and Kasara will also be disinfected.
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