New Delhi: Railway Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Friday said various steps have been taken to prevent stampedes and accidents caused by overcrowding at the railway stations during vacations and festive seasons.
In a written reply to a question regarding overcrowding at railway stations, Vaishnaw in the Rajya Sabha said to deal with the extra rush of passengers during festive seasons and vacations, the operation of special trains and temporary augmentation of trains are undertaken.
The steps include the deployment of Railway Protection Force (RPF) staff in coordination with the commercial department and Government Railway Police (GRP) at stations and railway premises for crowd management, he said.
The RPF personnel make efforts for orderly entry of passengers to unreserved coaches during the festive season by making queues of passengers on platforms before placement of trains, he added.
"Frequent announcements are made through the public address system to crowd control," Vaishnaw said. During the extra rush of passengers, he said foot over bridges, entry and exit points, and platforms are manned by RPF personnel to regulate the movements of passengers in coordination with GRP.
For this task, trained RPF staff are deployed in Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) surveillance rooms to monitor the crowd areas and to anticipate probable crowd movement for further information to the staff deputed at station premises and additional manpower of security personnel is provided from Railway Protection Special Force (RPSF) Battalions, the minister added.
He further said to ensure the safety of the passengers at railway stations, monitoring and vigil on criminal activities is kept by deploying staff in plain clothes.
To cater to the needs of passengers and generate additional accommodation for travelling passengers, railways introduce new services, extend services, increase their frequencies, and augment load, which are ongoing processes and subject to operational feasibility, resource availability, and competing demands, the minister noted.
- " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="">
Read More
