Western Railway (WR) on Thursday de-boarded 17 passengers who had arrived from abroad and were travelling to their respective homes in three separate trains.
The Maharashtra government has begun tagging people asked to be remain under home-quarantine by placing a “seal” on the left hand of such persons.
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The first six passengers were de-boarded from the Saurashtra Express at Borivali at around 9 a.m. WR officials said that the six were students who had come from Singapore and had boarded the train from Mumbai Central.
In the second instance, five passengers returning from Thailand and travelling on on board the Kutch Superfast Express, which leaves from Bandra Terminus for Bhuj, were noticed by ticketing staff in the B1 coach. The train came to an unscheduled halt at Palghar Station at 7.12 p.m., and the passengers were de-boarded and handed over to the district authorities.
Persons with the “home quarantine” stamp were also found travelling on-board the Mumbai-New Delhi Rajdhani Express.
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WR officials said that the Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) found three passengers who had arrived from Dubai, and three other passengers who had arrived from France, in the B7 coach. “All six passengers were de-boarded at Surat Station, where the train halted from 7.51 p.m. to 8.01 p.m.,” a WR spokesperson said.
Sanitised after
After their de-boarding, the respective coaches in all three trains were sanitised and cleaned at the next major stop, railway officials said.
WR had also de-boarded four passengers on Wednesday at Palghar, who had similarly boarded the train to go to Surat and had the “home quarantine” stamp on their palms. WR had also stopped a woman passenger who had the stamp from boarding the Avantika Express from Mumbai Central.
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Divisional Railway Manager, Mumbai Division, WR, G.V.L. Satya Kumar, said that after a slew of such incidents, WRhad ramped up the number of staff members across three key stations in the city. “We have deployed three times the number of staff at the entry points of Andheri, Bandra and Borivali stations, as these are the main boarding points for passengers taking long distance trains. In addition to that, we have been making announcements across all stations stating that people who have been asked to be under quarantine will not be allowed in station premises,” he said.
