By Chanchal Mukherjee
New Delhi: Two days after the stampede at New Delhi Railway Station, which left 18 people dead and over 15 injured, the Railways have taken a slew of measures to deal with the heavy rush to avert any untoward incidents for the safety of passengers. The Railways is planning to inculcate skills to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel and Commercial staff to deal with heavy rush flow control during overcrowding situations at the station.
Informing about the measures, a senior Railway official told ETV Bharat, "Indian Railways will set up a designated holding area just outside the platform at 60 major stations across the country to keep waiting passengers and their attendants."
The Railways, which has finally woken up after the tragedy, decided to restrict the sale of platform tickets from 4 pm to 11 pm for a week. Notably, it was noticed that on the day of the incident around 2600 more passenger booked their ticket at New Delhi Station between 18:00 hours and 20:00 hours.
In addition, the Railway will resticit the entry for platform if they notice extra rush condition and travel tickets will be checked strictly before allowing passengers for going to the platform, the Railway officials said.
Now, the Railways is planning to extend these steps to other major stations to ensure a smooth rush management system in view of the safety of travellers. The administration is also identifying vulnerable spots including staircases, footover bridges, galleries, and platforms at the stations to deploy railway staff to keep vigil to avoid overcrowding situations in these areas.
In a major decision, the Railways has also decided to shift its ticket counters outside the station side to manage travellers' heavy footfall to buy tickets, senior officials pointed out.
Besides, the railway enforced other measures to avoid any such untoward incident in the days to come. "It has been decided that all special trains in the direction of Prayagraj will be run from platform number 16 to the extent possible. Therefore all the passengers wanting to go to Prayagraj shall come and go from Ajmeri Gate side of New Delhi railway station. Regular trains will continue to be operated from all platforms as the regular practice is. This is a step in the direction of avoiding peak hour rush getting accumulated in one platform," a senior official informed.
As per some officials, after the incident, the deployment of RPF, CRPF, RAF, and GRP has been increased to ensure the smooth movement of travellers at the railway station. "These personnel are assisting the passengers by helping them guide towards the platform in which their train is scheduled to depart," the railway officials added.
The Railways has set up a two-member high-level committee to probe the incident which occurred at New Delhi station. The committee comprises, Pankaj Gangwar (Principal Chief Security Commissioner) and Nar Singh (Principal Chief Commercial Manager).
Stampede cases:
As per Rajya Sabha data, based on the data provided by GRP of States and Union Territories, 2 cases of stampede were reported during the last three years 2021 to 2023.
Accidents:
According to Lok Sabha data, there has been a steep decline in the number of accidents. Consequential Train Accidents, which include consequential train derailments also, have reduced from 135 in 2014-15 to 40 in 2023-24. The causes of these accidents broadly include track defects, Loco/Coach defects, equipment failures, and human errors.
