Only passengers who have been administered with two doses of Covid vaccination will be allowed to travel in the suburban train services in the Chennai region from January 10. This is part of the new guidelines to come into force from Monday, according to a Southern Railway press release.

Taking into account the current surge in the Covid cases and threat of Omicron variant, the Tamil Nadu government has imposed several restrictions since January 6. As per this suburban train services shall be permitted for operation with 50 per cent of the seating capacity. On account of this, the following restrictions shall come into effect from 04:00 hours of January 10 till 23:59 hours of January 31 in the suburban train services in Chennai region, including the extended areas of Chennai Suburban.

Only passengers in possession of certificate for Covid vaccination (both doses) will be permitted to travel in suburban trains. They will need to produce the second dose vaccination certificate/final certificate for the issue of journey/season tickets at the counters along with their valid ID proofs.

For passengers already possessing season tickets issued prior to today, such passengers will necessarily carry the second dose vaccination certificate/final Certificate along with their valid ID proofs and produce the same on demand by the ticket checking staff.

Southern Railway appealed to passengers to be fully aware of the restrictions imposed by the State government and to undertake the journey only in accordance with norms laid down.

Fine

The Railway administration shall impose a penalty of Rs 500 wherever passengers are found not to be wearing the mask. Passengers are requested to co-operate with Railway employees for checking of your valid documents at stations and during the journey, the release said.