Railways prepares new plan to prevent stampedes

At present, Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officers of senior grade are posted as station directors; henceforth IRTS officers of Selection Grade, higher in the hierarchy, will be posted as station directors, especially in bigger stations which face heavy crowds. They will be empowered to control the sale of tickets as per the capacity of the station and available trains.

Besides this, as a crowd control measure, all staff members will be given new design uniforms so that they can be easily identified during a crisis situation. “It was decided in the meeting that all staff and service persons will be given a new design ID card so that only authorised persons can enter the station. Along with this, latest design digital communication equipment like walkie-talkies, announcement systems, and calling systems, will be installed on all heavy crowd stations,” the official quoted above said.

To avoid stampedes like that in the New Delhi railway station, the Ministry of Railways has planned to develop permanent waiting or holding areas at 60 stations where the footfall is very high, especially during the festival seasons. In all, there are over 8,000 railway stations across the Indian Railways. Pilot projects at New Delhi, Anand Vihar, Varanasi, Ayodhya, and Patna stations, have already commenced.

“With this concept, a sudden swelling of the crowd will be contained within the waiting area. Passengers will be allowed to go to platforms only when trains arrive. This will decongest the stations. Along with this, allunauthorised entry points will be sealed. There will be complete access control in these 60 stations. Only passengers with confirmed reserve tickets will be allowed to go to the platform directly. Passengers without a ticket or with a waiting list ticket will wait in the outside waiting area,” said the official.

The Ministry of Railways officials also said two new designs of 12 metre wide (40 feet) and 6 metre wide (20 feet) standard Foot Over Bridge (FOB) have been developed. “These wide FOBs with ramps were very effective in crowd management during Mahakumbh. These new standard wide FOBs will be installed in all stations. Cameras helped crowd management during Mahakumbh. A large number of cameras will be installed in all stations and adjoining areas for closer monitoring,” said the official. Along with this, the

Railways will have war rooms at large stations.

In the February 15 stampede incident at the New Delhi Railway Station, of the 18 persons who died, 11 were women, four children, and three men. Many eyewitnesses alleged the stampede took place because of “lack of crowd management” at a time when a large number of people were trying to board the Prayagraj-bound trains.

Recently, five senior officers, including the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Delhi, were recently replaced. The investigation of the stampede incident by a high-level committee is still ongoing.