To break the COVID-19 chain, Mumbai locals stopped working; it is now using social media to reiterate the importance of social distancing

• In wake of the Coronavirus outbreak, Western Railway is using the best ways possible to reiterate the importance of social distancing through its social media pages.
• It is using popular train songs and movie dialogues to remind people ‘how it stopped the train to break the chain.’

What do you say to your temptation of stepping out? “Not Today,” reminds Western Railway on Twitter.

India’s busiest urban rail network, Mumbai locals, that carries 80 lakh people every day, shut down on March 22 to curb the spread of Coronavirus, for the first time in its history.

Amidst the nationwide lockdown, Western Railway is now reminding commuters in a social media campaign called ‘Ticket to Suraksha’ to stay put -- in the wittiest ways possible. Its latest strategy is to use vintage train songs to convey the importance of social distancing.

It first referred to Ashok Kumar’s hit Bollywood song from 1968, ‘Rail Gaadi Rail Gaadi’ from the film Aashirwad to reiterate how it ‘stopped the train to break the chain.’ Playing with the last stanza, Western Railway said ‘abhi toh sab station bole ghar pe hi ruk,’ roughly translating to, now all stations are requesting you to stay home.

It further said that “Staying quarantined at home is better than staying quarantined in a hospital later! Let’s stop #COVID19 from coming indoors by avoiding going outdoors. ”


Using another famous Marathi rhyme Jhuk Jhuk gaadi, it said that “We agree that your native place has more greenery and fresh air, but this lock-down is not the right time to travel to your native place.”


Not just now, Western Railway has always been famous for the ways in which it has been using humour to spread caution on social media. It has often borrowed from pop culture references to remind people that safety always comes first.


Even after the outbreak of COVID-19, Western Railways' spirit remains unshaken. From a play on the famous song ‘Keh do na, Soniya’ to latest Ganesh Gaitande’s ‘Kabhi kabhi lagta hai apunich bhagwaan hai,’ this government body has tried all rules in the book to speak to the millennials in their language.

It has been reminding the youth to take all preventive measures such as avoiding touching their face, washing their hands, not stepping out, and keep using sanitizers.

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