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The Railways today told the Bombay High Court that it would soon form a committee to study the feasibility of installing CCTV cameras in ladies’ coaches of suburban trains as a safety measure.
A lawyer representing the Central as well as the Western Railway said this to a bench headed by Justice Naresh Patil hearing a suo motu PIL, which was converted out of a letter written by AB Thakker, a passenger, seeking reservation of a separate compartment for senior citizens in local trains.
More than 50 lakh commuters travel by local trains every day on Western, Central and Harbour lines.
Safety on focus
Initially, the PIL was only confined to the issue of finding more space for senior citizens in local trains but later on other issues such as safe travel, garbage on tracks, accidents and overcrowding in trains came up for consideration.
Both the Railways informed the court that they would form a joint committee to find out whether the proposed move to install CCTV cameras in ladies compartments of local trains would be feasible.
After the committee submits its report, the Railways would inform the court about taking such a step in the interest of passenger safety, its lawyer informed the bench.
On December 16 last year, the High Court had asked the Railways to consider installing CCTV cameras on local trains.
Court suggestions
The court today advised the Railways to put up iron rods fencing near the tracks at the railway stations to prevent the commuters from crossing the tracks.
The court suggested that the Railways should put up barbed wires on top of iron rod fencing so that commuters do not jump over the railing in a bid to cross the tracks. People living near railway tracks should be prevented from throwing garbage into the Railway premises in the interest of passenger safety, it added.
The bench also asked the Railways to raise the height of the platforms to lower the gaps between the platforms and the footboard of the trains. This was suggested in view of commuters slipping into the gaps that result in accidents.
The matter has been posted for further hearing on February 8.
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