Visakhapatnam: Male passengers getting into women coaches is one of the major complaints being received by the railway security helpline number (182) managed by the Railway Protection Force of Waltair railway division. The railways launched the helpline number to provide speedy assistance to passengers in the event of thefts, harassment, pick pocketing or other criminal incidents on the rail premises.
The 182 helpline of the Waltair railway division receives about 45-50 calls every day. However, 90 per cent of the calls are prank or wrong calls and related to other reasons like water supply, cleanliness, food. Speaking to this correspondent, the senior divisional security commissioner Ibrahim Sheriff said, "We were getting very few calls on 182 helpline. However, awareness programme to popularise the number has paid off as we are getting 40-50 calls in the division. The matter of concern is passengers are calling on this helpline for other than security reasons.
Further, sometimes children end up dialling the number unknowingly. Though we route the calls to the respective department, a call filtering system is required now for speedy assistance,” he added. “Among the genuine callers, women mostly lodge complaints when they find men occupying the ladies coaches. Other complaints are related to passengers travelling in reserved coaches without ticket or on wait list. The calls are diverted to the Divisional Helpline depending on the location of the caller. The RPF personnel, who are posted as escorts on various trains, are alerted about the complaint through CUG (Closed User Group) or through warlike talkie. The complaints are attended and the action taken is also reported back to the helpline,” said Mr Sheriff.
One of the major constraint is the helpline can receive only calls made from BSNL and Airtel network in the Waltair division. "Passengers who call from other than these two networks are connected to other division like Khurda, Sambalpur or Vijayawada divisions. Efforts are on to upgrade the service to all networks," he added.
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The 182 helpline of the Waltair railway division is receiving about 45-50 calls every day. However, 90 per cent of the calls are prank or wrong calls and related to other reasons like water supply, cleanliness, food. One of the major constraints in the security helpline of Waltair division is it can receive calls made from BSNL and Airtel only.
