Eastern Railway to revalidate old monthly tickets

Kolkata: The Eastern Railway has decided to revalidate old Monthly Season Tickets (MST) by adding the remaining balance days to the fresh ones issued before suburban train services resume from Wednesday. The revalidation will be done from UTS counters at all railway stations from where they were issued before the lockdown.

"Is a passenger, for example, had 10 more days validity of his/her MST when train services were closed down due to the lockdown and if he/she produces that, the balance of 10 days will be added to the fresh MST that will be issued. The move will ensure that he/she will not lose any money," said a Railway official.

The ER authorities are trying their best to open up the window for validation of MSTs at least 24 hours prior to the resumption of train services. However, no daily tickets will be issued in advance.

"The Standard Operating Procedure for travelling in trains maintaining Covid health protocols is being worked out and likely to be finalised on Monday," the official said adding that the timetable for the respective divisions will also be finalised before Wednesday.

Eastern Railway authorities are planning to run 45 percent of the trains from Wednesday compared to that during pre-Covid times. At least 915 suburban trains used to run from Sealdah Station in the pre-Covid period.