The Central Railways (CR) and Western Railways (WR) has installed an emergency talkback system in 327 women’s compartment in Mumbai local trains.
It has come to light that the railways have taken this initiative in order to enhance safety for women commuting by trains.
The talkback systems are installed in 51 local trains on both CR and WR.
According to reports, the system has been installed in 240 compartments on 40 local trains on Central line, whereas on the western line, the system has been installed in 87 compartments on 11 local trains.
Every local train has four women’s compartments including first-class compartments. The Railways plan to install the systems in all women’s compartments in their suburban fleet in phases over the next two years.
Official stated that the railways plan to install the systems in 116 local trains in one year and the remaining local trains next year.
How does it work?
The systems enable passengers to speak to the local train guard during an emergency. With this, passengers can directly alert the railway authorities through the guard of the local trains.
The system features a button that needs to be pressed to talk to the guard (the one who mans the cabin on the non-driving end of the train) via an inbuilt microphone.
Meanwhile, there is another talkback system installed in the guard’s cabin that lets the guard reply and later alert the motorman in case of distress to passengers.
Moreover, the Central Railway has also installed 183 CCTVs in women’s compartments and tenders for installing the CCTV cameras in 589 compartments have been processed.
Passenger associations have appreciated the move saying that women commuters travelling late at night will feel safe.
For those unversed, the system was initially introduced on an experimental basis in five local trains and was later on announced in the union budget for 2019-2020. There are 269 local trains on the Central and Western Railway; 156 local trains on the Central Railway and 113 local trains on the Western Railway.
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