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Mumbai local trains to have blue visual indicators that will be used for safety to prevent people from boarding running trains.
What Is It?
Mumbai locals can seem scary as they’re usually crowded with people who are running against time in this fast-paced city and can’t afford to miss the train. Local trains are said to be Mumbai’s lifeline where almost entire working population commutes through them daily to and fro because they’re a cheaper and faster mode of transportation. Youngsters are seen hanging around the compartment poles, while some of them are mostly catching running trains in order to not miss it.
According to RTI query in 2017, around 3,202 commuters lost their life on railway tracks alone. These tragedies have made Mumbai’s stations popularly known as ‘killer platforms’.
What’s In It?
To prevent these tragedies from happening in Mumbai locals since a large population journey by them, the Central Railways has decided to install blue visual indicators atop a coach on a pilot basis. This is to guide the commuters to not board a running train.
This was also shared as a tweet by the Union Minister of Railway and Coal, Piyush Goyal who encouraged this initiative and emphasized that ‘safety comes first‘, always! Accidents that happen while catching running trains can thus be prevented using the new system.
The operations were carried out in Kurla car-shed of Central Railway under the guidance of DK Sharma, General Manager, Central Railway. The Central Railway will review the performance of the indicator and depending on this they will decide whether more lights should be installed elsewhere also.
Moreover, to improve safety through crowd-control and make platforms more accessible for passengers, Mumbai railways have constructed a record of a total of 26 foot-over bridges in Mumbai Central Division in the first eight months of 2018-19 alone, highest ever within a single division.