Northern Railway marked a noteworthy period by carrying a phenomenal volume of 28.75 crore passengers from April to August 2014 during the current financial year. Envisaging a more demanding festive rush this year, the Railways had geared up its operations through multi-pronged strategies. For the convenience of rail passengers and in order to clear extra rush during this festival season, Northern Railway has planned and commenced running of 75 pairs of special trains (total 150 trains) with a total of 2353 trips running on Northern Railway system in co-ordination with other railways. This includes 24 pairs of premium specials, four pairs of jansadharan trains and 47 pairs of express special /EMU/DEMU special trains.
To accommodate more passengers, 80 trains have been augmented with 123 coaches to ease the extra rush by Northern Railway marking 6070 trips in all. A revised load of one/two additional coaches each is being attached to important trains by other zones, as per availability, on the trains run on Northern Railway during the festival period.
The Vigilance department of Northern Railway has also earmarked the Pooja rush period from 20 September to 31 October as a special drive period when intense checks are undertaken to ensure complaint free, smooth and transparent services to the passengers. Three teams headed by vigilance inspectors assisted by RPF staff are constituted to conduct checks on rotation basis in station premises and all public interface areas in the vicinity of reservation centres/stations. The Railway Protection Force of Northern Railway is also undertaking focused efforts to curb malpractices and address issues like touting and unlawful vending at stations.
The Railway had also geared itself to meet any untoward operations through extensive medical emergency arrangements. First aid boxes are available with the guards in all the passenger carrying trains with guards and at stations with the station master. At major railway stations augmented first aid boxes are available. Besides, lists of railway hospitals/health units, govt hospitals in vicinity, private medical practitioners are available. Special arrangements are also made by setting up first aid posts at Delhi Jn, New Delhi, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Delhi Sarai Rohilla and Anand Vihar Terminal stations in Delhi.
Northern Railway has undertaken the following arrangements to ensure better security and for effective crowd management:
CCTVs under Integrated Security System have been installed on 22 stations, namely New Delhi, Delhi Sarai Rohilla, Delhi Cantt, Chatrapati Shivaji Bridge, Delhi, Sarojini Nagar, lajpat Nagar, Delhi Shahdara, Anand Vihar Terminal, Ghaziabad, Dehradun, Haridwar, Moradabad, Varanasi, lucknow, Jammu Tawi, Jalandhar City, ludhiana, Attari, Ambala Cantt, Saharanpur, Chandigarh. CCTVs have also been installed in PRS centers to curb the menace of touting and to check the irregularities, alertness and behaviour of railway employees.
In order to meet the increased requirement of the staff, re-deployment of the available work force was done. Beside, Scouts and Civil Defence personnel were also deployed in passenger interface area to supplement the RPF/RPSF. Scouts/Civil Defence staff were deployed for assistance. Personnel with loud speakers provided to announce relevant information.
All major stations have been equipped with DFMDs. Manual luggage checking is being carried out by RPF/GRP
Arrangements have been made to ensure that no space of coaches is encroached upon by anti-social elements. For this purpose, rakes in locked condition are brought to platforms. Besides, teams have been formed to book the antisocial elements involved in seat-cornering.
Security arrangement at stations and parcel booking areas be enforced with dog squads. metal detectors, hand held metal detectors, manning of all the entry gates, mega mikes and manila ropes at FOB and platforms.