Niggles galore as Mumbaikars come out for local train pass

As civic counters were set up at 109 stations to verify vaccination certificates of commuters to enable them to buy train passes crowds gathered in the later part of Wednesday By 7 pm 16798 season tickets had been sold by Central Railway and 6453 by Western Railway While the process was a breeze for many others struggled as they forgot to carry copies of the mandatory documents The technical software glitch was rectified on Wednesday so now passes will be valid from August 15Till 7 pm 23251 passes were issued across the cityThe state government has allowed fully vaccinated citizens with a 14day cooling period to use local trains from Independence Day To reduce the rush on that day train passes are being issued in advance Commuters must get copies of their vaccination certificate and ID proof stamped by the civic staff at the stations before proceeding to buy the passesA civic official stamps the documents of a commuter at Kurla station on Wednesday PicSayyed Sameer AbediOn WR about 80 booths were set up and 323 RPF personnel were deployed in two shifts to ensure smooth working Of the passes sold 975 were for 1st class and the remaining were for 2nd class commuters The highest number of passesmdash449mdash were purchased at Borivli station until 4 pm said officialsCR stations collectively have 340 booking counters and 145 booths with Dombivli station topping the sale of season tickets at 880 by 4pmAlso read Mumbai local trains Teachers unhappy over the lsquowastedrsquo four daysMany commuters were disappointed that they needed to buy a monthly pass even for a single journeyThough several citizens were eager to get a pass which will allow them to use the cityrsquos lifeline and queued up at Borivli station many were turned away by the help desk team from RCentral ward due to fake certificates and for carrying only the soft copies of photo IDs and not bringing original documents Many who have got only one dose also showed up in the hope of getting the passesCommuters queue up for verification at Dadar station PicPradeep DhivarGajendra Desai was among those who were not allowed to buy passes He had brought along an antigennegative report A help desk staffer tried to explain to him but after some time asked him to go to another desk ldquoI work as a society manager at Masjid Bandar I changed two buses daily from Borivli to Andheri and Andheri to Masjid I have taken the vaccines I need a travel pass but they are not allowing merdquo said Desai a senior citizenBorivli resident Siddhesh Shah who travels to his workplace at Bhayandar daily by auto or bike was told to wait for a few more days ldquoA train pass will solve the travel woesrdquo he told midday and added ldquoI have taken the second dose on August 4 and think they will allow me to travel after August 15 But they give a stamp only after the completion of 14 days I tried my luck but in vainrdquoV K Bhimani another elderly person couldnrsquot get his certificate verified as the image of the QR code was cut on one sideA few showed fake certificatesSharing their experience a BMC employee deployed at Borivli station said ldquoSome people are coming with fake certificates In other cases the QR code image is not proper Two people came with test reports Many are coming with soft copies of Aadhaar cards some donrsquot carry their original IDs It is the first day and people have many doubtsrdquoVerification process is on at Borivli station on Wednesday PicSatej ShindeThere are two booths at Borivli West where three employees were checking the papers On the east side two civic staffers were entrusted with the verification duty A corporation employee said people are eager to get their papers stamped but many are unaware that the railways wonrsquot not issue a single ticket and they will have to take a monthly passlsquoIt was quite smoothrsquoAt Thane station Gopal Bafna looked excited ldquoI was one of the first ones to get through and for me it was a smooth process I managed to get a season ticket too The Thane Municipal Corporation stamped my certificate and authenticated it after which I got the ticket from the counterrdquo Fellow Thanekar Mukesh Thakkar said he was a senior citizen and was keen to get a pass ldquoAt least I will be able to travel by train now and avoid the roadrdquo he saidNo rush at Andheri stationAndheri station did not see too much crowding at the help desks set up by K west ward office While many turned up to enquire for relatives there were no long queues K west ward officer Prithviraj Chavan who had stationed about 10odd ward employees at the station said ldquoDepending on the response we will decide on whether to reduce or increase staff at stations to help citizensrdquo358 help desksIn BMC limits that is till Mulund Mankhurd and Dahisar a total of 358 help desks have been set up at 53 railway stations and a total of 18324 train passengersrsquo certificate verification was done16798No of passes issued by CR till 7 pm6453No of passes sold by WR till 7 pm109No of stations where BMC kiosks have been set up