Coronavirus pandemic: Central Railway increases platform ticket prices for Mumbai, Pune

Central Railway has announced that it is increasing the platform ticket price from Rs 10 to Rs 50 on its Mumbai, Pune, Bhusawal and Solapur Divisions with the purpose of curbing crowd at these stations in the wake of coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier, Western Railways increased platform charges to Rs 50 in all major stations in its six divisions: Mumbai, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Ratlam, Rajkot, and Bhavnagar.

"Platform ticket charges have been increased at a number of stations for ensuring crowd control in view of coronavirus problem," a railway official told CNBC-TV18.

According to reports, voluntary Infrared thermometer checks were also started at Mumbai's  CSMT, Thane, Dadar and Kalyan railway stations on March 17.

The railway board had also recently instructed general and zonal managers that all curtains should be removed and blankets should be withdrawn from service until further notice.