NEW DELHI: A 24X7 War Room has been set up by the Railway Ministry in the Rail Bhavan in New Delhi that provides a live feed of train movements and passenger services with cameras installed at nine stations and its adjoining areas of Prayagraj, an official said on Tuesday. The Ministry has made elaborate arrangements for crores of devotees arriving from all across the country.
It has deputed more than two dozen railway officials and experts from various fields such as commercial, technical, safety, etc in the War Room in various shifts to monitor live feed on the screens around the clock and advise the concerned staff on the ground to take the corrective measures if required.
These nine stations where devotees are arriving from various parts of the country are Prayagraj, Naini, Prayagraj Chheoki, Subedarganj, Prayagraj Sangam, Prayag Junction, Phaphamau Junction, Prayagraj Rambagh Station, and Jhunsi Station.
“The monitoring of live feed is happening at multiple levels and the highest one is at the Rail Bhavan in New Delhi. The first level is the platform monitoring room where screens are providing live feed from cameras installed at the platform. Then comes the station monitoring where several platforms of one station are being monitored. Similarly divisional, district and zonal level monitoring are also happening,” Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, said.
He added, “The War Room in Delhi is facilitating effective coordination between district authorities and railway officials, ensuring immediate assistance and operational efficiency.”
Officials deputed in the War Room said that though they can access all 1186 camera feeds, they are focussing on main spots such as passenger holding areas at platforms, train tracks, deployment and movement of Railway Protection Force for passenger safety etc.
“The officers deployed at platforms, stations and other levels to monitor camera feeds are well-trained to come out with suggestions and instructions and hence the officials sitting here in Delhi are largely over-viewing the ongoing activities. There are very few instances where our intervention is required,” Kumar said.
Officials said that the main purpose of multiple-level monitoring is to prevent a situation where any stampede kind of situation can arise because the number of passengers arriving at all these nine stations is unforeseen as over 40 crore devotees are expected to visit Maha Kumbh.
According to Railways, along with people from the Indian subcontinent, devotees from more than 100 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Canada, and Mexico, will also participate. Indian Railways will play a crucial role in ensuring the successful organisation of Maha Kumbh 2025.
“This War Room is also helping us keep a watch on the requirement of additional trains besides special and regular ones. We have plans that if holding areas get crowded due to the flow of passengers and available train services are insufficient, we can also put in service additional trains to ease the station and platform areas,” Kumar said.
He added, “Similarly if we find certain areas where no RPF staff is visible, our RPF person in the War Room establishes contacts with the concerned officer at the station and asks him to deploy the staff there.”
