Kolkata: Metro Railway, Kolkata has urged the passengers not to activate the Passenger Alarm Device (PAD) unnecessarily as this action not only hampers the services as well as causes extreme inconvenience for the co-passengers.
The authority also urged the co-passengers to identify such persons when Metro staff attend the coach from where the alarm is raised.
The issue cropped following a situation on Wednesday when a PAD was triggered. The incident took place around 9:50 am on Wednesday when the motorman brought the train to a halt at Rabindra Sarobar station following activation of the PAD in one of the coaches. As per protocol, the motorman rushed to the concerned coach to investigate. However, no emergency was detected and no passenger came forward to explain the activation despite repeated appeals. Due to this, the Metro services were slightly hampered. Several other rakes which were en route were delayed by a few minutes during the peak hours.
Though services were restored swiftly, the incident caused considerable inconvenience to daily commuters, many of whom were left frustrated by the lack of accountability.
While minor technical issues or signalling glitches are not uncommon in the city’s Metro services, officials stated that misuse of the PAD, intended strictly for genuine emergencies, is a rare occurrence. Metro Railway sources, informed that if any person is caught misusing the PAD, they will be prosecuted.
“We urge the passengers to cooperate with the Metro Railway. On Wednesday, no passengers were seen identifying the person who had activated the PAD. It is our request to the passengers to please identify the person in case of misuse of PAD. It will help you as well,” said a Metro Railway official.