ER to raise platform height for safe boarding

Kolkata: Flooded with complaints from persons about the short height of some railway stations in the south section of the Sealdah division, the Eastern Railway has started work to raise the heights of platforms.

Elderly persons were facing major problems in boarding and alighting from trains because of the low height of the platform.

In the south section of the Sealdah division, trains run in a number of routes. The prominent ones are Sealdah-Namkhana route, Sealdah- Budge Budge route, Sealdah-Canning route and Sealdah-Diamond Harbour route.

"We have started raising the height of the platform to facilitate smooth entraining and detraining at Garia station, Nangi station and some other stations," said a senior official of the Eastern Railway. He reiterated that there are 202 stations which will witness this work and it will be carried out in phases. Normally, the height between the track and the platform is 5.5 ft. However, the height of platforms in most of the railway stations in the south division is less than 5.5 ft.

Ensuring that passengers are not inconvenienced and work can be done quickly, the levelling of platform is being done from 9 pm till 5 am. "I commute regularly from Park circus railway station to Mallikpur railway station. I am grateful to Eastern Railway for making the initiative to raise the height of the platform. Due to the huge gap between the platform and train gate many people fall down while boarding and deboarding the train. Elderly persons avoid travelling in trains because of unparallel platform and train gate level," said Parvez Akhtar, principal of Indian Era Public School situated Mallikpur. The Sealdah station observes nearly 12 lakh footfall on a normal day. However, during Durga puja the rush of passengers goes up to 15 lakhs. Every year, the Eastern Railway runs Durga Puja special trains to cater the rush of passengers.