For control over railway tracks in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the Western and Central Railway will block all unauthorised entries and exits
All unauthorised entries and exits will be closed in view of last year’s train blasts
To ensure complete access control to railway tracks throughout the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the Western and Central Railway will soon block all unauthorised entries and exits. With the help of Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai Police, it will also launch a joint action campaign against violators.
The decision was taken at a high-level review meeting held against the background of the first anniversary of the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai last year at Mantralaya in the chairmanship of Maharashtra Chief Secretary Johny Joseph. The meeting was attended by Maharashtra Director General of Police PS Pasricha, Mumbai Police Commissioner DN Jadhav, top officials of the Western and Central Railway and several senior government officials.
Talking to mediapersons, Joseph said, “According to information shared by railway officials, till date, Western Railway identified as many as 275 unauthorised entry and exit points on either sides of their tracks out of which 70 have been immediately plugged and the remaining will be plugged immediately.”
“However, the biggest problem faced by the railway officials is that if they build a wall at such points, anti-social elements may break them. Therefore, it has been decided to launch a campaign to find out such elements who will be arrested,” said the chief secretary. He said at least 1,100 policemen would be recruited.
Giving details about measures for better surveillance, the chief secretary said, Western Railways had assured of installing 533 CCTVs, buying 212 hand-held metal detectors, and creating 12 squads of sniffer dogs. “For this, the Western Railways will spend Rs11 crore,” he said.
About compensation, medical reimbursement and rehabilitation of the victims of serial bomb blasts in Mumbai last year, he said, aid had been paid to relatives of all 185 victims of the blast, except in one Benny Joseph case. In Joseph’s case, compensation could not be paid as there were some disputes about the legal heir. Similarly, he also made it clear that the state would write a letter to families of all victims of serial bomb blasts and ask whether they needed help from the state for their long-term medical and rehabilitative measures.
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