SPEAK UP
The fire at CST has made it clear that cooking stalls at stations are a serious fire hazard. DNA finds out why stall owners and their profit takes priority over commuter safety for railways.
The fire at CST heritage building and the recovery of 30 cooking gas cylinders from the godown has opened a can of worms for the city’s railways as it is now turning out that almost all the stations along Mumbai’s Central, Harbour and Western lines are a serious fire hazard and safety nightmare for the over 6.9 million who travel by local trains daily.
This when the 2010 Catering policy formulated by the Union Ministry of Railways (a copy of which is with DNA) prohibits cooking on railway stations!
A letter written by railway board executive director Mani Anand in July 2010 specifically adds that the revised policy guidelines will be implemented with “immediate effect” A copy of the circular no 35/2010 with guidelines of the new catering policy was sent to general managers of all railways in the country July itself.
Yet, ironically so, 30 cooking gas cylinders were recovered by the Mumbai fire brigade stored in the backyard of CST station where both CR general manager Kul Bhushan and divisional manager Moolchand C Chauhan themselves sit.
Any Mumbaikar who has been seduced by the wafting aroma of hot wada pav on the stations will vouch for how liquified petroleum gas cooking cylinders are a common sight despite regulations and restrictions against their use on stations and platforms.
In an attempt to improve safety standards at railway station food stalls, the Western Railway had decided that stall owners will not be allowed to cook on platforms way back in March 2005. They were asked to switch from gas-based cooking to electrical appliances.
In fact stall owners were given orders by the then Mumbai divisional commercial manager to vacate their stores by March 31, 2005. These stores meant for storage of cooking materials were being misused for cooking with utter disregard for safety or hygiene.
The decision had come after several incidents of fire, especially when a cylinder blast at Andheri station caused a death and an injury.
But look around and these tall orders have remained just that. Most contractors cook Mumbai’s favourite batata wadas and other such items under the space of foot over bridges and many times in the canteen itself, putting to risk lakhs of passengers. The space under the foot over bridge is converted into a cooking room, all set with exhaust fans and ventilation. Most of the railway stations are island platforms (with tracks on both sides of platform, making escape difficult in case of emergency). In fact with collections per day going up to Rs 80,000-90,000 plus on stations like Elphinstone and Thane; catering contractors seem to be having field day doing exactly what they want to.
Rule 7.1 of the circular, there should be no cooking at all on platforms at suburban network stations and for other stations there should be attempts to progressively reduce cooking on stalls and trolleys on the platforms. About setting up kitchens, the order specifically states that in order to ensure cooking-free platforms and availability of clean, hygienic and quality food to the passengers, zonal railways may identify suitable space, if available, on railway premises near railway stations for setting up kitchens by the licensees.
“None of the rules are followed up and you can find violations and illegalities on Mumbai’s suburban railways wherever you look. While managers vie for the plum Mumbai posting none of them ever want to take responsibilities,” says Subhash Gupta of the National Railway Users Consultative Committee who adds, “sometimes one only wonder if the food stall contractors and the officials have some cozy arrangement of sorts.”
While the railway board order also specifies that all systems and processes such as deep freezers, hot cases, microwave ovens and refrigerated storage units should replace existing traditional equipments and manual methods in kitchens; this rule too is hardly followed.
Gupta says, “The fire and cylinder blast at CST was not a first. Unless the authorities do not wake up to the horrible danger that they are exposing lakhs of people every single day this will definitely not be the last.”
Commuter speak
Safety measures needed at stations
Space crunch is a major problem in Mumbai, but it doesn’t mean that the vendor’s should do things that would threaten the lives of commuters. However, I don’t think the stalls should be removed altogether. Many commuters depend on them for refreshment after a long hard day’s work. They serve their purpose, so just a bank on cooking can make it a lot safer. The recent incident at CST should serve as a warning to the authorities; they should be more safety measures in place on the platforms.
— Shailendra Pandey, Bhayandar resident
Should only have packaged food
This kind of an occurrence is rare, but it should not be treated lightly. I have been using the suburban trains for over 20 years now, but it has never occurred to me that vendors cooking on platforms could be risky. The government needs to think of services that can offer commuters food without it being a threat to people’s lives. There could be a separate cafeteria from where the vendors can get food. They could also opt to provide packaged food. These alternatives need to be seriously considered.
— Aziz Khan, Goregaon resident
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