Watching point at Dadar rly station to curb crime and crowding on platforms
Aroosa Ahmed
MUMBAI: In order to prevent overcrowding at railway platforms, foot over bridges, and to keep a watchful eye on crimes, the Central Railway (CR) has introduced a pilot project called ‘watchtower’ or ‘watching point’ at the Dadar railway station, one of the busiest in the city.
As part of the initiative, a Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel is deployed at the station’s platforms three and four (where a single platform is positioned between two railway tracks.) during the peak office hours. So far, a long-heightened chair with a loudspeaker has been introduced as the watchtower.
As part of their duty, the RPF personnel will also sound the for the passengers about maintaining distance from the platform when the train arrives.
At present, the railways have started the initiative with one watch tower at Dadar station and if successful, other watchtowers will be introduced here along with Kurla, and Thane railway stations. 3.5 million pasalarm sengers travel by local trains every day on the CR network.
“We are taking this step to have a bird’s eye view and keep watch over anti-social elements at the platforms,” said Jitendra Srivastava, senior divisional security commissioner, Mumbai division of the Central Railway.
Passenger associations have welcomed the initiative and have stated that the watchtower will avoid any untoward accidents including stampedes at railway stations, “The watchtower at railway stations is a good idea as passengers will not just feel safe, but it will also avoid untoward incidents like a stampede. A stampede during monsoon on foot over bridges can occur like the one that happened at Prabhadevi railway station,” said Subhash Gupta, president, Rail Yatri Parishad.