Railways have dismissed the reports about overcrowding of passengers at railway stations as fake and manipulated.
Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Trilok Kothari said on Friday that there was no crowding of passengers either on trains or at railway stations.
Mr. Kothari said about 90% of the train services were reintroduced as special services.
He said 138 train services were reintroduced in Palakkad division. “All of them are running as express or mail special with reserved accommodation to ensure adequate social distancing,” he said.
He said that Palakkad division was considering reintroduction of thermal scanning of passengers as part of a new drive to control the spread of COVID-19.
Mr. Kothari said Railways continued to insist that all passengers wear masks during train travel. Railways have stopped issuing platform tickets to prevent crowding at stations.
‘Sanitised regularly’
Mr. Kothari said all railway stations, coaches, circulating areas at the stations and workplaces were being sanitised regularly.
He said the first dose of COVID-19 vaccination was given to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel. “We are giving priority to the division’s frontline staff in vaccination,” he said.
Additional Divisional Railway Manager C.T. Sakkeer Hussain and Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Jerin G. Anand too accompanied Mr. Kothari.
