DMRC fines more than 2000 people for not wearing masks

NEW DELHI (Metro Rail News): Two weeks after resuming services — after a pause of five-and-a-half months — the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has fined more than 2,000 people for not wearing masks in the station premises and inside trains. According to DMRC data, from September 11 — when the rail corporation started imposing fines for mask violations — till September 20, at least 2,214 commuters had been fined for not wearing masks.
Apart from this, DMRC teams had counselled, but not fined, more than 5,000 people, in an attempt to ensure that the new travel guidelines are followed.
Four days after its graded resumption of services, the DMRC had formed a special flying squad for each of its nine operational corridors to ensure that commuters wear masks inside the Metro network at all times and abide by social distancing norms. These teams move in and out of trains and stations in the lines assigned to them and if any passenger is found to be violating the rules, they counsel them. If a commuter still refuses to fall in line and wear a mask, then they fined under Section 59 of Delhi Metro’s Operations and Maintenance Act. Under this section, violators can be imposed a fine of Rs 200 for creating a public nuisance.
According to DMRC, maximum of these fines were issued on the Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli-Huda City Centre). As many as 724 commuters were penalised for not wearing or improperly wearing masks in stations and inside trains.
This was followed by the Violet Line (Kashmere Gate-Raja Nahar Singh Ballabhgarh), where 580 fines were issued and the Blue Line (Dwarka Sec-21 to Noida Electronic City/Vaishali) where 545 people were fined.
In the Red Line, connecting Rithala and Shaheed Sthal New Bus Adda, the DMRC has so far issued 134 challans for mask violations, while on the Magenta Line (Janakpuri West to Botanical Garden) and Pink Line (Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar) 109 and 79 fines were issued, respectively.
On the Green Line (Kirti Nagar/Inderlok -Brigadier Hoshiar Singh Bahadurgarh) 26 commuters were fined and on the Grey Line (Dwarka-Najafgarh) 17 people were fined. Because of the low ridership on the Airport Express Line, no fines were issued on the corridor.