The City Railway Station will soon have an emergency medical centre, said to be the first of its kind in any railway station in the country.
The medical centre, to be set up by the Bangalore Division of South Western Railway (SWR) in association with Narayana Hrudayalaya to attend to immediate medical needs of railway passengers, will commence trial operations in a couple of days and will formally be inaugurated on July 1.
1.5 lakh footfalls
The City Railway Station handles over 100 pairs of passenger trains and records around 1.5 lakh footfalls of inbound and outbound passengers every day.
While the Railways can summon their duty doctor to attend to emergencies such as cardiac arrest or stroke, the station does not have required infrastructure to handle such cases. There are also instances of passengers injuring themselves in the process of boarding or alighting from trains and people coming under moving trains. In such situations, the administration felt the need for such a facility to provide immediate medical aid.
Divisional Railway Manager Sudhanshu Mani told The Hindu the medical centre will initially function with paramedics and will have emergency facilities, including telemedicine.
A doctor will be posted if experts at Narayana Hrudayalaya recommend it, he said. In any case, the 108 Arogya Kavacha Ambulance is always on standby at stations. Depending on the success, SWR will open a similar centre at Yeshwanthpur Railway Station.
Help counter
Mr. Mani said the Division has recently opened a ‘May I Help You' counter at the City Railway Station, which will function between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.
While inquiry counters and reservation counters offer answers to queries regarding train timings or availability of berths/ seats, passengers have been finding it difficult to get answers for general queries. The only option for them was to approach the station manager or other officials. This new counter will address such situations.
Luggage trolleys
After the City and Cantonment Railway stations, porters at Yeshwanthpur Railway Station too will get luggage trolleys by month-end. The SyndicateBank is sponsoring 35 of the trolleys. Negotiating tracks is easy in this station as footbridges have trolley paths, Mr. Mani added.
