Emergency call facility on WR trains

According to this scheme, over 72 locomotives and 91 stations along the 492 kms route between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will be fitted with Very High Frequency (VHF) equipment to provide a communication network. In case of any emergency, the driver or guard will be able to inform any station falling within a radius of three km. There is a separate system for a save-our-soul call, wherein the driver will be able to send a signal to a station or all trains within a radius of 7 km. “Allthat the driver has to do is to press two buttons, and the signal is immediately sent,” said the General Manager of WR, V D Gupta.

The system installed at a total cost of Rs 2.09 crore is currently undergoing user trials and is expected to be fully functional in three months.

Gupta claimed that the train describer system, touted by WR as manna for the information hungry suburban commuter, will be completed by early 2000. “We are going in for installation of a Rs 4.69 crore system in the suburban section which will be more efficient than the emergency system,” he said. In this system there will be two radio base station at Mahalakshmi and Borivli to transmit the signals to over 150 mobile units in the Electric Motor Units.

The system, when fully functional, will also serve as a link between the driver and the guard and the control room in case of an emergency.

It comes at a time when a spate accidents last year put a question mark on the safety factor of the Indian Railways. Less than a month ago,the pride of the railways Rajdhani Express derailed on the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border on WR. Meanwhile, an accident on the Central Railway involving the Pune-bound Shatabdi Express had led to the death of a passenger on January 7.