Mumbai: To check if they slept well, Western Railway to track phone locations of loco pilots

Mumbai: In a unique bid to ensure that loco pilots of suburban trains come on duty with a relaxed mind, the Western Railway has decided to track the locations of their mobile phones. The move – aimed at preventing accidents due to fatigue – will apparently help the railways in knowing that loco pilots have gone home and taken a sound sleep before returning on the next working day. However, the idea has not gone down well with several loco pilots who termed the decision as invasion of privacy.

The WR's Chief Loco Inspector has already issued a letter in this regard to loco pilots. “Running a local train requires a very precise skill and full concentration, especially in a super-dense network such as Mumbai,” said the WR official, adding that proper rest is necessary for the job.

Loco pilots must keep the mobile phone's location feature always turned on “without fail”, read the letter issued on Jan 8. “Any violations will be viewed seriously. These are the instructions of senior divisional electrical engineer, operations, Mumbai Central Division of the WR,” it added.

Backing the decision, the senior official said that it has been taken to ensure that loco pilots get proper rest because driving a local train needs full alertness. “While investigating future incidents of signal passing or other lapses by loco pilots, it will be checked whether they took proper rest or not before joining the duty.” There have been cases of overshooting signals and platforms, but no investigation has, so far, been able to prove that these errors occurred because of lack of proper rest, the official added.

However, a loco pilot said, “The decision is a clear-cut violation of privacy norms. How can they track the locations of our personal mobile phones.” Similarly, another employee said, “This is not acceptable. How can the railways track locations of our personal phones, that too, after completing the day's schedule.”

Read Also

Mumbai: Central Railway to operate night traffic block between Khadavli and Asangaon on Sunday