The need to plug gaps to halt platform parking

When Rajesh Yadav, 36—a driver with a private firm—drove onto platform number 6 at Andheri station on November 25, he blamed a medical condition for his action. Yadav said he got confused with the direction and ended up entering the station.

Yadav's condition led to a brain haemorrhage later that night in hospital. However, a number of railway officials say there are gaping holes at a few railway stations, which allow people to even drive a truck onto the platform.

A railway official said the worrying part about the security arrangements at railway stations is that incidents can occur unintentionally, and can be replicated intentionally. Among the striking examples are Bandra and Mahim stations, both declared as 'sensitive stations' during a review undertaken after the serial train attacks on July 11, 2006, and the terror raid at CST in November 2008.

Both entrances to the stations are on the western side—from platform number one, thereby allowing cars onto the platform from the arterial road running alongside it. Dadar, too, has a gate just beside the Railway Officers' Guesthouse in the north-west part of the station. Motorcycles can enter the station from the flower market road running parallel to the station.

It is not the first time that the Railways has been left red-faced. In 2014, an drunk auto driver parked his auto on platform number 1 at Kandivli station. He was arrested. After the Andheri incident, Shailesh Gupta, Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Western Railways, said the department will be placing barriers to prevent people from using ramps to drive onto the railway platforms.