New Delhi, March 7 (HS): A high-level meeting was held on Friday under the chairmanship of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw regarding crowd control at railway stations. In this, many important decisions were taken including setting up permanent waiting rooms at 60 busy stations of the country and making a senior officer the station director at all major stations, based on the experiences of the festive season and Mahakumbh. It has also been decided to allow only passengers with confirmed reserved tickets to go to the platform.
Sharing the details of the meeting, the Railway Ministry said that based on the experiences of the last festive season and Mahakumbh, permanent waiting rooms will be built outside 60 stations across the country, where there is a huge crowd of passengers regularly.
Pilot projects have been started for this initiative at New Delhi, Anand Vihar, Varanasi, Ayodhya and Patna stations. With this arrangement, sudden crowds can be controlled in the waiting area. Passengers will be allowed to go to the platform only when the train arrives, which will reduce congestion at the station. Complete entry control will be implemented at these 60 stations. Only passengers with confirmed reserved tickets will be allowed to go to the platform. Passengers without tickets or passengers with waiting list tickets will wait in the outer waiting area. All unauthorized entry points will be sealed.
Two new standard foot-over bridges (FOBs) with 12 m (40 ft) and 6 m (20 ft) width have been designed. These wide FOBs and ramps proved to be very effective in crowd management during the Maha Kumbh. These new FOBs will be installed at all stations. Cameras played an important role in crowd control during the Maha Kumbh. A large number of cameras will be installed for strict monitoring at all stations and surrounding areas. War rooms will be set up at big stations. In case of congestion, officers from all departments will work in the war room.
State-of-the-art digital communication equipment such as walkie-talkies, announcement systems and calling systems will be installed at all stations with heavy footfall. All staff and service personnel will be given new design IDs, which will allow only authorized persons to enter the station. Apart from this, the staff will be given new design uniforms so that they can be easily identified in case of any emergency.
A senior officer will be made the station director at all major stations. All other departments will report to the station director. The station director will be given financial powers so that he can take immediate decisions for station improvement. The station director will be given the right to control ticket sales according to the station’s capacity and available trains.
Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
