The Indian Railways has been working significantly towards maintaining cleanliness and hygiene for passengers at the stations as well as during the journey. A lot of measures have been taken by the railway authorities in this regard, and the recent measure taken up by the authorities include the installation of mask and sanitizer dispensing machines at Patna Junction.
The measure has been undertaken by the Railway authorities to ensure the safe travel of passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The machines have been commissioned by a Delhi based vendor in the East Central Railways.
The senior divisional commercial manager (DCM) of Danapur division, Aadhaar Raj confirmed the installation of Mask and Sanitizer Dispenser (MSD) machines at the platform number 1 of Patna Junction, near the main entrance. The initiative is taken to ensure that the passengers are supplied with masks and sanitizers at affordable prices for their journey, in case they forget to bring it from home.
“This would be of great help to especially all those passengers, who come to the station or those on board in the trains and have forgotten to bring the mask and sanitizer during the prevailing outbreak of Covid 19 pandemic”, he said.
Further, Rajesh Kumar, chief spokesperson of ECR, stated that the vending machine has the automated capability to accept coins as well as the paper currency of different dominations, returning the remaining amount after deducting price for the order given by passenger.
“It has a capacity of vending 48 different items. As of now, the masks of various safety qualities and the bottle of hand sanitizers of travel-size have been put for automated vending”, Kumar said.
Patna junction became the second railway station to get MSD machines after similar machines were installed at Nagpur junction on May 18.