For the first time in months, the footfall recorded on the Central Railway and Western Railway crossed 35 lakh. This is approximately 8 lakh to 10 lakh more than the footfall seen last week. Meanwhile, the demand for Monthly Season Tickets (MSTs) surged in the last five days as well.
From August 11 to August 16, 1,19,448 MSTs were sold on CR and 56,363 MSTs were sold on WR. On Tuesday, CR sold 17,761 MSTs till 4pm and WR sold 8,133 MSTs till 6pm. This takes the total to over 2 lakh MSTs. Both lines are expected to ferry 45 lakh passengers by mid-September, once more people in the 18 years to 44 years group are fully vaccinated.
WR sold 14, 214 MSTs in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Bhayandar sold more than 4,500 MSTs in the last six days, followed by Virar at 2,624 MSTs and Mira Road at 2,205 MSTs. "It is possible that many offices are still working from home. It also seems like people are travelling twice or thrice a week. Therefore, they are not buying MSTs," said a railway official.
On CR, Dombivali sold 10,495 MSTs, followed by Kalyan at 7,043 MSTs and Badlapur at 5,080 MSTs from August 11 to August 16. Officials claim that this is just a marginal increase against the expected 20 lakh additional passengers.
