Hassles related to jurisdiction are expected to become a thing of the past for victims of crimes on railway property, thanks to a pan-India helpline rolled out on Friday.
Unveiled by Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary, the All India Railway Helpline number, 1512, is all passengers need to remember and utilise in the event of falling prey to a crime on railway property including both running trains in addition to platforms and stations across 27 States and all Union Territories.
Mr. Chaudhary also made a test call to the helpline at its launch function before commending the Delhi Police, which instituted its maiden call centre at its local railway unit, for having among the lowest crime rate related to incidents involving the railways in the country.
Pursued for over a year and the brainchild of his force, several interstate coordination meetings were held in the course of the development of the helpline, according to Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sen Bassi.
“Several inter-state coordination meetings were held to formalise the all-India helpline number whereby control rooms were set up in the States. The helpline is also provided with a geo-fencing feature so that a call by a railway passenger on it is received by the concerned control room in a State,” Mr. Bassi said at the helpline’s launch.
Sanjay Bhatia, DCP (Railways) said the objective of the helpline was to substantially shorten response time by ensuring that calls about instances of crime got logged directly with it before being relayed to the nearest railway police station.
“The time between the occurrence of the crime and the commencement of investigation related to it is key when it comes to trains and transit points such as railway stations,” Mr. Bhatia said.
