News Railways

Railways steps up precautionary measures to fight second Covid wave | Chennai News

[ad_1]

CHENNAI: Amid increasing cases, Southern Railway has stepped up Covid-19 precautions that include making masks mandatory, setting up thermal scanner cameras and implementing contactless ticket checking at stations.
To screen passengers faster at stations, thermal scanner cameras and contactless ticket checking system have been set up at major stations.
Egmore and Arakonam have one thermal scanner camera each while at Central station, where it was first tried out during the lockdown, now have three cameras. Similarly, contactless ticket checking by which tickets of passengers are scanned using a handheld device or a mobile phone is in force at Central, Egmore, Tambaram, Chengalpet, Arakonam, Katpadi and Jolarpet. Such a checking is available at two entry points in Central.
The thermal cameras read temperature of passengers as they walk through a doorframe at the stations. The sensor will display the temperature using a colour code on a computer screen and the RPF staff manning the kiosk will be able to detect the passenger and stop inspite of a crowd. This is being used in addition to temperature check done manually.
Southern Railway general manager John Thomas told reporters that more thermal cameras would be installed after need is assessed.
He also urged passengers to take precautions while traveling as there have been reports that people are not wearing masks at stations and on trains. “Use of masks would be mandatory and “we have told railway staff and TTE to ensure that passengers wore masks at the railway stations,” he added.
The precautions are being tightened as the number of passengers using trains are increasing. Central railway station handles 82,000 passengers on average and Egmore handles 64,000 per day.
Southern Railway will deploy more RPF personnel to implement Covid-19 precautions.

[ad_2]

Source link