Mumbai, May 30: The central railway of Mumbai has decided to depute extra staff to avoid any untoward situations like stampede on busy railway foot over bridges, especially when the monsoons are ahead. According to news reports, the central railway has identified 13-foot overbridges at Dadar, Parel, Currey Road, Chinchpokli, Ghatkopar and Kurla which are congested and used more frequently by people. Last year, while taking shelter during the rain, 23 people lost their lives on the steps of Elphinstone railway foot over bridge. Reportedly, a rumour broke-out that the bridge on which they were standing was crumbling due to the heavy load.

Confused and shocked amid the rumour mongering, people started running which led to the tragic incident stampede to occur. Therefore, to prevent such incidents in the future, the railway authorities have decided to put extra staff on such bridges, to guide people and to instruct them to vacate the place, instead of obstructing the bridge during rainfall.

Furthermore, to ensure the safety of commuters, the IMD has decided to set up weather monitoring system inside the railway stations, which will pass-on hourly updates on rainfall to commuters, along with the railway officials.

According to a news report in The Hindustan Times, all railway officials, from the general manager to station masters and the motormen will be informed about the weather conditions through live updates. Based on the forecast, it will help the railways restrict train movement whenever needed. DK Sharma, general manager, central railways was quoted as saying,“We have informed railway officials to identify and determine land inside railway stations for setting up of weather monitoring system. We will be receiving ‘Nowcast’ updates from the IMD through the system and accordingly will determine the local train operations."

Rains have already hit Kerala on Tuesday. Now with only a few days are left for the arrival of the monsoon in Mumbai as predicted by Skymet and IMD weather forecast agency. Therefore, a review meeting was held by Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis with different authorities from the BMC, railways, Met department and the army to understand what all measures would be adopted to protect the Island city Mumbai from flooding.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 30, 2018 03:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).