BENGALURU: A four-year-old boy playing inside the Baiyappanahalli Metro station with his sister fell down on the railway track on Thursday night. Power supply was switched off by Metro officials and train operators were directed to stop driving their trains. The boy escaped with minor scratches behind his ear. The incident happened at 9.08 pm and the stalled train operations resumed seven minutes later after clearances.
A tweet by the official handle of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) said its alert staff saved the boy from any major mishap.
According to a BMRCL source who reviewed the footage of the incident on Friday, the boy accompanied by his mother and sister were alighting the stairs leading to Platform 2. “The boy was running a little ahead of the girl who was chasing him on the flight of stairs leading to the platform. The boy continued his run onto the platform and did not realise he had reached its edge and fell down.”
In a statement on the incident, the BMRCL said, “The boy fell down accidentally on the tracks. Immediately, the Emergency Trip System (ETS) was operated by the Station Controller in his cabin. He also informed the approaching train operators to stop the train. Meanwhile, the ETS were operated by security guards also on both Platforms 1 and 2. The boy was safely brought back to the platform by the guards. Upon noticing the incident, the Station Controller reached the platform and found only little scratches behind his left ear. There were no other major injuries.”
The boy and his mother were accompanied by a security guard to the Sir CV Raman Hospital nearby. A doctor found no abnormality and directed them to Victoria Hospital. The findings of a scan taken there did not show any abnormality and the boy was discharged, the release added.
Following a spate of suicide attempts or accidental falls last year on rail tracks, BMRCL had decided to install platform screen doors for its Pink Line (Kalena Agrahara to Nagawara), Phase-2A (Central Silk Board to K R Pura) and at one of the stations on the Phase-2B Line (K R Pura to airport), the Airport City station. Tenders have been called and the contract awarded to Alstom Transport India in January this year.