Mumbai – Last year, passengers of local trains were harassed three thousand times by tourists from outside the city. 3094 cases of alarm chain pulling were reported in suburban trains in Mumbai division of Central Railway. In most of which chains were pulled by tourists for petty reasons. Railways has taken steps to prevent misuse of alarm chains.
The manager of Mumbai division of Central Railway posted a warning on social media and wrote that strict action will be taken against the passenger unnecessarily pulling the alarm chain in trains. Also appealed that tourists should not misuse this facility. On December 29, seven passengers were produced in court under section 141 of the Railways Act on charges of pulling chains without valid reason.
According to Railways, pulling the alarm chain has a direct impact on the timetable of local trains. Due to this, on an average 12 people come late by 10 minutes. Finally, passengers are troubled by the crowd gathering on platforms and trains. Moreover, Central Railway is already 15 per cent behind in maintaining train timetables due to other challenges. According to a senior official, pulling the alarm chain of a train causes trouble not only to that train but also to other trains coming on the same route. Additionally, Mumbai’s suburban lines, which are constantly busy, are more affected.
Alarm chains are kept in trains for emergency situations. But for their own selfish reasons, some passengers spoil the railway system by causing inconvenience to thousands of passengers. A person who breaks the chain for trivial reasons like deboarding a train at an intermediate station or forgetting luggage on the platform is booked under Section 141 of the Railways Act and can be punished with a fine of Rs 1,000 or one year’s imprisonment or both. There may be a punishment of Rs. In the year 2024, RPF arrested 2658 such tourists and collected a fine of Rs 14.95 lakh from them. 24 people were imprisoned for one year. Last year, 241 cases of alarm chain pulling were reported in January, 250 in February, 247 in March, 276 in April, 276 in May, 270 in June, 253 in July, 240 in August, 256 in September, 249 in October, 273 cases were reported. Came. in November and 265 in December.
