Mumbai: The Railway Protection Force of Mumbai Division coordinated with 5 BN NDRF, Pune and organised a crowd regulation and disaster management mock exercise from 10 pm to 11.30 pm on May 4 at Andheri station. Ravinder Bhakar, Chief Public Relations Officer, Western Railway said 60 RPF and MSF staff were briefed about the chances of crowd build up in suburban stations during monsoons and how to effectively regulate the crowd to prevent stampede.
Banners, caution boards, ropes to segregate the crowd to make bidirectional movement on FOBs, megaphones to make announcements, walkie talkie sets for speedy communication etc., were used during the mock exercise. Dy.CO/NDRF along with a team of 40 NDRF staff reached the station with rescue equipments, an ambulance with emergency medical assistance arrangements, retriever dog etc.,
Role of RPF as first responders during crowd related disaster situation was explained to the staff. They were divided into teams and assigned specific task to assist NDRF team during the rescue operations. “A stampede scene was created and the victims were segregated into 3 categories depending upon the injury level by tying red, yellow and green wrist bands. Carrying them to MFR (Medical First Responders), giving first aid and immediately shifting them to hospital by ambulance was demonstrated,” said Bhakar.