Meet CST’s Shankar and Narayan

You are in a hurry and have almost reached CST, but just before the station arrives, the train comes to a dead halt, leading to frustration and abuses. 

But for four people sitting at the towering control room next to platform 7, those small moments are of hectic stress and activity.

‘’There’s a Shankar slow and a Narayan fast. When these two are out, there will be space and we can allow the waiting train to enter CST,’’ says one of them.

Welcome to the control room of one of the world’s busiest rail terminus where there is not even a minute without train movement. It has more than 1,500 services and movements and one span of lapse, would mean a day-long collapse of timetable. The four people are backed by a team of hundred others who provide support on train movement.

And Shankar and Narayan are not the Hindu God’s, but names of south-bound and north-bound locals —the Karjat (S) and Kasara (N) locals “There’s so much of pressure in this room that if I say S that stands for south and the other person hears N that stands for north by mistake under stress, then train schedules will go for a toss,’’ says one of the four officers. ‘’Shankar and Narayan are two distinct words with phonetic sounds and there is no scope for mistake.’’  The names are common among motorman and other railway staff—  a 17:25 Shankar and a 14:32 Narayan.