Centre for Railway Emergency launched

CHENNAI: People rushing to the Central Railway Station seeking information in the event of a major railway mishap will no longer have to jostle around tiny help desks, with the authorities having created a permanent structure for the purpose. Christened 'Centre for Railway Emergency’, the facility has been set up near the main entrance of the sprawling railway station in Chennai and will be activated during railway emergencies, including train accidents and large scale disruption of train services. The first-of-its-kind centre will take over the role of the help desks to assist those approaching the railway station for information and updates. "We felt the need for such a centre," said S Anantharaman, Divisional Railway Manager, Chennai Division, Southern Railway. "The Centre for Railway Emergency will be equipped with telephone facility," he added.  Following a train accident the Railways administration opens a help desk to provide information to people who turn up at the stations to check up on their kith and kin who were travelling on the involved train. Help desks are also launched during agitations like a rail roko, which results in large-scale cancellation and delay of trains. Help desks till now functioned in temporary structures at the Central Railway Station with tables, chairs and officials to take on queries from the public. With hundreds of people thronging the help desks, chaos was the order of the day and the personnel who manned these help desks had a tough time. The Centre for Railway Emergency has counters from where the necessary information can be obtained in a systematic manner. An average of 108 long distance trains depart from Central Railway Station daily, while 254 suburban services are operated from the adjacent Moore Market Complex.