The Central Railway (CR) on Wednesday conducted mock drills at three stations to test their preparedness during overcrowding situations and to prevent a repeat of the tragedy that occurred at Elphinstone Road last year. The mock drills were conducted at Parel, Chinchpokli and Currey Road and will be held at other crowded stations such as Kurla, Ghatkopar and Dadar soon.
A senior railway official said station masters of these stations have been given the responsibility to ascertain whether a platform or FOB is getting overcrowded and will inform the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and ticket checking staff if crowd management measures need to be taken. While each station has measures that are unique to it, some common measures include diverting the crowd through various exit points and blocking entry to a foot over bridge that might be at the risk of overcrowding.
“We will have different measures and at different stations. In Parel, for instance, if there is a case of overcrowding on the platform, we will be deploying Railway Protection Force and Maharashtra State Force staff at the base of the FOB and on the FOB. The person on the FOB will ask commuters to exit on the east side, which will serve as a holding area, preventing more people from entering the FOB. The staff deployed on the platform will seal entry to the platform with the help of ropes and ask commuters on the platform to use the FOB built by the army,” senior divisional security commissioner, CR, Sachin Bhalode, said. Mr. Bhalode said that in case of Parel, the staff will also be in constant touch with those at Elphinstone Road station to implement effective crowd management measures.
The staff undertaking crowd control will have megaphones and placards stating, ‘This FOB is overcrowded. Please use the other FOB.’ Senior railway officials said train services will not be affected if a case of overcrowding is encountered at any station. “The staff have also been instructed on how to deal with inflowing traffic and redirect it to FOBs that are not overcrowded,” a senior railway officer said.
