Mumbai: Peak hour trial of automatically closing doors led to panic among commuters as most of them complained of not being able to board and alight from the train. The incident took place at Vasai Road railway station in the 8.20 local train.
The trial was taken during the peak hours in a non-air-conditioned local train which has been fitted with the mechanism.
Ravinder Bhakar, chief public relation officer, WR said there was confusion because at few stations commuters were forcefully opening the closed doors in three coaches.
Thus, it took time to reset and operate the doors. In a bid to reduce the number of deaths due to commuters falling off crowded trains, last week Western Railway (WR) started trial runs for 15 days wherein non-AC coaches will have an automatic door-closing system.
The current trials are being done to gauge the reduction in the carrying capacity of a particular coach, as well as the time taken by these doors to open and close at crowded stations during peak and non-peak hours.
