Round-the-clock vigil ensures no deaths at the railway crossing

The Central Railway's Vikhroli station level-crossing that witnessed 13 accidents till November 2010, has been accident free for the past 60 days, courtesy a dedicated team of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) that keeps round-the-clock vigil on the accident-prone zone.


A team of Railway Protection Force patrol the Vikhroli level-crossing

The railway officials had deputed the RPF team, which includes three women and two men personnel, at the Gate No. 14C level-crossing after around 4,000 commuters protested against the death two people at the gate within a span of a few hours on 21 November last year.

If the Central Railway has earned kudos from the general public for keeping its promise and starting construction work of an over bridge at the Vikhroli gate this month, the CRPF team has also earned praises for working three shifts daily to ensure that no more lives are lost at the level-crossing.

"The first shift starts at 7 in the morning. They have been instructed to monitor the gate strictly and not to move an inch from their positions," said a senior RPF official.

According to an RPF estimate, at least 10 people die everyday on the railway tracks in Mumbai and its suburban areas.

Lauding his team Senior Deputy Security Commandant, RPF (CR), P C Sinha said, "We have deployed a team of RPF personnel, led by an inspector rank officer, to monitor and supervise the gate.
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There have been no accidents on the gate as our guys remain alert 24X7."

Protectors or victims?

But it seems the round-the-clock monitoring is proving a little exhaustive for the RPF team, particularly its women members.u00a0"We have to do an eight-hour shift just sitting near the gate and monitoring the movement of passengers.
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We don't even have a facility of toilets here. There is a train every 2 minutes and the motormen have been instructed to blow horn near the gate to alert jaywalkers. Some of us have developed hearing problems because of the deafening sound of the horn," said one of women personnel.

This is not the only problem they are facing at the level crossing.
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They women personnel, who are working shifts to ensure the safety of commuters, are subjected to lewd comments from passengers on moving trains.

"There have been instance when passengers on moving trains make indecent gestures and pass vulgar comments at us.
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We can do nothing, but curse our fate. Anyway, women are subjected to this kind of torture almost in every profession," said another woman cop.