Govt Unveils Online E-Pass Facility For Suburban Trains

Mumbai: The government on Thursday launched an online epass facility linked to CoWin to enable those fully vaccinated to travel on suburban trains. The BMC said the ‘Universal Travel Pass’ system allows travellers to obtain an e-pass without physical verification.

- Chaitanya Marpakwar & Manthan K Mehta

On the other hand, the off-line system unveiled on Wednesday had more passengers lining up with identity cards and vaccine certificates in order to purchase monthly season tickets.

The weblink- https:// epassmsdma.mahait.org was initially developed by the state’s Relief and Rehabilitation wing to provide e-passes to those in essential services. Recent procedures to integrate the portal with CoWin were completed in less than three days with the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s consent and the help of MAHA-IT, Maharashtra Knowledge Innovation Society and a few start-ups.

Now, it will be available to members of the public provided they are fully vaccinated. “This weblink will be available on all browsers. The e-pass must be saved on a mobile and, on showing it at a ticket window, commuters get a monthly travel pass. So offline verification will not be required,” an official said.