In order to carry out live, constant monitoring of passenger flow, the Western Railway (WR) this monsoon will use 2,500 CCTVs on crucial platforms and railway stations.
According to the Hindustan Times, in monsoon, additional railway staff, including Railway Protection Force (RPF), will be deployed to manage crowds and special precautions will be taken on stretches known to accumulate water, like Grant Road to Lower Parel and the Vasai-Virar section. Every year overcrowding during the monsoon and waterlogging during periods of high tide accompanied by heavy rainfall has posed as a challenge to WR. But this year, the WR plans to monitor railway stations at Andheri, Dadar, Jogeshwari, Nalla Sopara and Virar to prevent stoppages, delays, and overcrowding.
WR will not only monitor crowd through control rooms and the CCTV cameras, but it will also deploy additional railway staff and RPF personnel at crowded stations. A senior WR official told the leading daily, “The probability of overcrowding at railway stations during heavy rainfall increases. This year we have decided that live constant monitoring will be done apart from the ones happening in the control rooms. The railway personnel will then be deployed to the crowded locations.”
The WR has even directed motormen to operate local and outstation trains with special precautions on the stretches between Grant Road and Lower Parel; Dadar and Matunga Road, and the Vasai-Virar section. Other measures taken to ensure trains run smoothly on the WR network are three new culverts, being constructed at Virar railway station in collaboration with Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC).
