Remove stalls on Mumbai’s railway stations, create space for commuters, say GRP officials

To ensure safety and security of passengers travelling on the Mumbai suburban network, the Government Railway Police (GRP) have written to the Railway department to evict all eateries on railway platforms to provide more walking space.

“After the Elphinstone Road stampede a committee was formed to review the safety of commuters. We had then proposed to remove the stalls and eateries from the platforms which is now been undertaken in phases,” said Niket Kaushik, railway police commissioner.

They have not just taken measures to control crime but also made elaborate suggestions to improve basic amenities for dispersion and crowd control.

According to Kaushik, as part of the Railway audit done by GRP and Railway Police Force (RPF) officers in 2017, they have written to the railway department to upgrade the technology.

The GRP have also proposed to increase the signboards. “A commuter would tend to spend less time on a railway platform if he gets better directions to exit the platform,” said Kaushik.

The audit carried out had also revealed many infrastructural defaults. According to GRP officials, many measures taken by railways to secure the commuters are faulty, insufficient and not up to the mark. The officials said since past 10 years the multi-crore Integrated Security System (ISS) has not even been fully implemented in Maharashtra.

A total of 202 “sensitive” railway stations were identified for installation of ISS, which was a detailed analysis and suggested measures to secure commuters from a terror attack.

Under the ISS, the Mumbai Suburban Railway was to form command centres at CSMT, Kurla, Kalyan and Dadar to integrate the entire security monitoring mechanism.

Among the list of high-end gadgets is a car remote tool opening kit, bomb suppression blankets and baskets, blast containers and armoured optic fibre cables.

Six stations on Mumbai division were selected under ISS – CSMT, Dadar, Kurla, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Thane and Kalyan. The GRP has also written several letters to the government about the non-functional Door Frame Metal detectors and non-manning of Door Frame metal detectors apart from sealing illegal entry and exit points.