After Palghar, staff at four GRP stations to have eight-hour shifts

Six months after the shifts of personnel at Palghar government railway police (GRP) station were reduced from 12 to eight hours, the same has been implemented at

Six months after the shifts of personnel at Palghar government railway police (GRP) station were reduced from 12 to eight hours, the same has been implemented at Kurla, Thane, Dombivli and Kalyan stations. Instead of working in two shifts of 12 hours, personnel at these stations will now work in two eight-hour shifts and one 10-hour shift.

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Former GRP commissioner Niket Kaushik said the experiment in Palghar was started since April and has been a success. “It was decided that instead of two shifts, the personnel would be divided into three shorter shifts,” said a GRP officer.

Ravindra Sengaokar, GRP commissioner said that it had been observed that personnel staying in far off places had to travel for more than two hours daily to reach their police station. This meant that personnel were spending 16 hours outside, which was taking a toll on their health.

“To reduce the workload, we had planned an experiment in Palghar as it was the farthest on the Western line and an officer took at least two hours to reach there from the central suburbs,” said a GRP officer. Once the experiment was successful it was implemented in four other police stations.

“The new shifts giving personnel time to relax and gather their strength,” said Sengaonkar.

Officers said that the timings of the shifts have been adjusted so that personnel do not have transportation problems in reaching too early or leaving too late. After Palghar, the GRP had replicated the changes in Karjat. It was decided that if the experiment was successful, other police personnel will also be given this facility.

At present, the GRP has 3,700 personnel and one GRP constable is accountable for 2,193 commuters. According to statistics, the number of commuters travelling on Mumbai trains had increased to 80 lakh in 2017.