More on Covid-19

NEW DELHI: In a bid to discourage gathering of large crowds in view of the coronavirus , some zonal railways have hiked the platform ticket charges from Rs 10 to Rs 50, officials said on Tuesday.This has been done by six divisions of the Western railway zone -- Mumbai, Vadodra, Ahmedabad, Ratlam, Rajkot, Bhavnagar -- that covers around 250 railway stations.In Southern railway zone , price of platform ticket only in Chennai has been raised, officials said, adding in Central zone, comprising of five divisions -- Mumbai (CST), Bhusawal, Nagpur, Solapur, Pune -- prices have been raised across all stations.Asserting that platform tickets charges have been increased at number of stations to ensure crowd control in view of the coronavirus problem, a senior official said,"it is being done at the local level".In March 2015, the railways delegated the power to Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs) to increase the rate of platform tickets beyond Rs 10 to regulate rush at platforms in specific conditions.Officials said soon more railway zones are likely to follow suit.The government has already taken a number of steps to detect and prevent the spread of coronavirus, which is showing an upward trend in the country and has claimed three lives and infected 126 people so far.