The Central Railway will be installing panic switches at 117 railway stations on its network, a top official said in Mumbai on Thursday, reported the PTI.

Speaking at his first news conference after taking charge of the post, Central Railway general manager Ram Karan Yadav said two panic switches will be installed on each platform at 117 stations.

In case of emergency, a passenger can press the button to seek help from the Railway Protection Force (RPF).

A senior CR official said the Central Railway has signed an MoU with RailTel for the installation.

“On pressing the panic button, the RPF control will get an alert and immediate help will be sent to the passengers by checking the CCTV,” the official said.

The work is expected to be complete within a year.

Yadav further said that all ladies coaches in the CR`s local trains in Mumbai will get emergency talkback system and CCTV cameras by March 2024.

Of 771 ladies coaches, 512 coaches already have the emergency talkback system and 421 coaches have CCTV.

Central Railway operates around 1850 suburban services in Mumbai, 145 DEMU-MEMU trains and 371 mail-express trains including five Vande Bharat Express trains, on its network.

Meanwhile, four more big firms—the General Insurance Corporation of India, GlaxoSmithKline, Gammon India and Godrej—have pledged support to Central Railway (CR) Mumbai’s appeal to implement staggered work timings. On December 9, mid-day reported about six organisations that vowed to implement the policy.

A B Desai from Gammon India said his organisation had a flexitime policy and employees chose their time depending on the traffic situation. “In our opinion, it’s better if the government issues an ordinance segregating timings for different sectors. There can be different time slots for each one starting from 7 am and ending at 9 pm,” he said.

N Ramaswamy, chairman and managing director of General Insurance Corporation of India, said, “We appreciate your concern and the initiative taken by your office regarding the staggered office timings. At GIC Re, we already have staggered office timings in place for our employees daily between 9.30 am to 11 am and depending on their entry time, their out time is arrived at on completion of the required working hour.”

(with PTI inputs)

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