BENGALURU: From Thursday, Banaswadi will become the first railway station in South Western Railway Zone to be fully managed by women. Very few stations in the country have achieved this distinction.An official release said, “On the occasion of International Women’s Day, we take the opportunity to pay tribute to the women workforce that forms an intrinsic part of the great Indian Railway.”Chief public relations officer, Bengaluru railway division, N R Sridharamurthy told The New Indian Express on Wednesday that all the ten staff to be deployed at the station would be women. “There will be three clerks booking unreserved tickets, three pointswomen (those who change railway tracks) and three station masters who will work round-the-clock. In addition, the station will have a clerk to take care of booking of reserved tickets from 6am to 2pm.”
On February 20, Gandhi Nagar in Rajasthan became the first mainline railway station in the country to be managed entirely by women. Matunga in Mumbai was the first suburban railway station to attain this distinction.Asked about the safety aspects, “Banaswadi is in the heart of the City only. We do not anticipate any major safety problems.”
There is no Railway Protection Force or Government Railway Police outpost here. “The GRP or the RPF would keep visiting the station,” he said. Senior divisional security commissioner of RPF was unavailable for comments.For the second consecutive year, an all-women crew will work on Bengaluru-Sanghamitra Express between the KSR Bengaluru and Chennai Central railway stations. It will comprise an assistant loco pilot, a trainee guard, three security personnel and six ticket checking staff.