Western Railway to soon deploy personnel to man escalators and lifts on suburban stations

Western Railway (WR) will soon deploy semi-skilled personnel to man the functioning of escalators and elevators on its suburban railway stations in the city round-the-clock.

Western Railway (WR) will soon deploy semi-skilled personnel to man the functioning of escalators and elevators on its suburban railway stations in the city round-the-clock.

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The decision has been taken after several instances of malfunctioning of escalators and elevators came to light on the stations.

The zonal railway has already floated a tender to hire semi-skilled personnel for the management and operation of every railway station from the end of this month for a period of 12 months. The personnel will also look after the operation and monitoring of control rooms for escalators and elevators.

“Cases of malfunctioning of escalators have been on a rise. Though we repair them, we get information about malfunctioning escalators and elevators quite late. A dedicated personnel will ensure that the escalators and elevators are functioning properly,” said a senior WR official.

In February, a passenger suffered minor injuries after a faulty escalator started moving in reverse on platform number 3 at Andheri railway station.

Ameya Save, one of the passengers who was on the escalator at the time, said, “The incident happened at 6.15pm. There was a loud noise and the escalator immediately began moving in reverse. Thankfully one commuter pressed the halt button, after which the escalator stopped immediately. Nobody suffered any major injury,” Save said.

WR has also undertaken the repair works on 17 escalators.