Commuters expressed happiness while getting the monthly pass after a long time on Wednesday morning at suburban railway stations in Navi Mumbai. Many of them were seen enquiring about the procedure and documents required to get for verification for offline passes. Both the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) have set up help desks to assist commuters.
On day one, NMMC verified a total of 1125 commuters' documents till 3pm with the maximum 228 at Nerul station.
Navi Mumbaikars express happiness after getting monthly passes to travel on local trains from August 15 | FPJ Photo
Vijay Dahiya, a resident of sector 48 in Seawoods works at an IT company in Airoli and he has been commuting in a private cab. “Though I am working from home, I have to go to the office once or twice a week,” said Dahiya. He added that even going for one or two times in a week in a cab was costly as he had to shell out Rs 500 to Rs 600. “Now I will save money by going by trains after August 15,” added Dahiya.
Apart from money, many commuters expressed that they would save time. “The local train is a lifeline and commuting by road is a nightmare when train services were not allowed for common people,” said Prabhakar Rao, a resident of Belapur, adding that he suffered a lot in the last couple of months while commuting by roads.
Many commuters applauded the state government's decision to allow people who are fully vaccinated. “This is a calculated risk in wake of the second wave severity,” said another commuter.
A NMMC official at the help desk at Seawoods station said that those who have completed 14 days of second dose can submit two hard copies of the vaccination certificate, two hard copies of Aadhar with two photos for the verification process. “Many of the commuters are just coming to get details and procedures,” said the official.
NMMC has deputed more than 100 civic officials at 11 suburban railway stations under its jurisdiction for offline verification for issuing monthly passes to travel in suburban trains. The state government has allowed those who have completed 14 days after COVID second dose to commute in suburban trains from August 15. Even the PMC has set up help desks at Kharghar and Panvel railway stations for offline verification.
Under the NMMC, the offline verification procedure for Covid-19 vaccination and issuing Railway Monthly Pass is available from 7 am at Rabale, Airoli, Koparkhairane, Turbhe, Sanpada, Vashi, Nerul, Seawoods and Belapur stations.
Meanwhile, people who reside in the newly developed node Ulwe have to go to Belapur, Seawoods or Nerul for documents verification for monthly passes as there was no one present for verification at Bamandongri and Kharkopar stations. A counter clerk at Kharkopar station shared the procedure but asked commuters to visit in either NMMC or PMC jurisdiction railway stations.
