NEW DELHI: Can a hike in the price of platform tickets curb the nuisance of alarm chain pulling in trains? This may sound bizarre but the Central Railway (CR), headquartered in Mumbai, has resorted to this with effect from May 9 in response to frequent incidents of alarm chain pulling in trains at Mumbai’s many stations.
Shivaji M Sutur, the chief spokesperson of Central Railway, admitted that the decision to hike the price of platform tickets was taken not only to check crowds but also to target the misuse of alarm chain pulling.
“It has been observed that relatives or friends, coming to see off people at stations, remain in the coaches till the train starts. Then, they pull the chain to get down. This is happening at CSMT, Dadar, LTT, Thane, Kalyan and Panvel railway stations. Hence, to discourage this, the price of platform tickets has been increased as a temporary measure for a fortnight,” he said.
The price of platform tickets has been increased from Rs 10 to Rs 50 from May 9 to May 23 at all these stations.
Sutur, through an official statement, further said, “A total of 332 cases of alarm chain pulling were reported in Mumbai division from April 1 to April 30. Out of these, only 52 cases had valid reasons."
The other 279 cases at stations in Mumbai had no valid reasons and caused a huge impact on the punctuality of trains.
He further said that 188 offenders were prosecuted under section 141 of the Indian Railway Act for pulling alarm chains without valid reasons and an amount of Rs 94,000 was obtained from them as penalty.
Meanwhile, the Central Railway has also made an appeal to passengers to reach the stations at least 30 minutes before departure to avoid crowds and alarm chain pulling in trains.
But some railway sources, preferring anonymity, said the hike in the price of platform tickets is not the way to curb the misuse of ACPs in trains. For this, there should be a proper mechanism and surveillance by RPF personnel at stations which report such incidents frequently, they said. Earlier, the Central Railway had increased the price of platform tickets during the COVID-19 pandemic from Rs 10 to Rs 50 to prevent crowds at platforms before restoring the original price.