Is Mumbai returning to normalcy? If the data provided by zonal railways and BEST is any indication, then it’s a ‘yes’. On Monday, the suburban railway section of the city crossed the 60-lakh passenger mark in a single day.
Similarly, BEST, which is known as the second lifeline of Mumbai, carried 26.98 lakhpassengers on Monday. Before the pandemic, the daily average passenger count for BEST was nearly 32 lakh; the daily average number of local train commuters (Central and Western Railway; CR, WR) was around 80 lakh.
On October 18, CR registered 32.55 lakh passengers in its suburban section. Similarly, WR’s Mumbai Division registered 27.61 lakh passengers in its suburban section. Confirming the development, a senior WR officer said it’s as good as normal. Passenger associations said the numbers could be much higher if card tickets become available for fully vaccinated people.
The president of Federation of Suburban Passengers Association, Nandkumar Deshmukh said the non-availability of card tickets has forced passengers to go for “illegal ticketless travel” by taking advantage of rush during peak hours.
