Tamil Nadu   

Helpline on trains

— Photo: R. Ashok.

EFFECTIVE: A constable with a mobile phone on a train in Tiruchi Junction.

Security and safety on board select long-distance trains has been enhanced through creation of a dedicated helpline for the benefit of rail travellers.

The mobile phones provided a few days ago to beat railway police constables providing armed escort in trains will enable faster communication and timely assistance for travelling public encountering problems on board trains, say railway police officia ls.

An exclusive helpline number – 9962500500- has been created at the Railway Police Control Room at Chennai to enable travellers to make calls and pass on messages during travel.

After ascertaining necessary information from the traveller about their train and the coach number, the control room will in turn immediately convey it to the ‘cell phone-equipped’ beat constables in the train to render immediate assistance.

At any given point of time, the control room will be able to handle four calls. Of the total 150 handsets given to the railway policemen, 51 are in the possession of escort personnel attached to the Government Railway Police, Tiruchi Police district, that has a vast jurisdiction right from Villupuram to Kanyakumari.

Over 75 beat constables attached to GRP, Tiruchi district, provide armed escort every day in various express trains and super fast expresses when it passes through their jurisdiction, say officials.

To start with, the service has been introduced in 68 long distance trains operated in the State of which 30 pass through the jurisdiction of Railway Police, Tiruchi.

The trains to be covered include Vaigai, and Pallavan super fast expresses, Guruvayur, Pothigai, Ananthapuri, Pandyan, Nellai, Mangalore, Mysore-Mayiladuthurai-Mysore, Rameswaram, Pearl City and Jan Shatabdi expresses. The Rameswaram and Nellai Expresses have mobile police units wherein three armed escort personnel travel in both directions.

The facility has been created to also inform the security personnel about unclaimed and suspicious objects and persons to the control room thereby helping the railway police in further augmenting the security, says a senior official. The scheme is being implemented with the help of Vodafone.

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