Title - Stations in a mess, railway cops to set up help desks

Chennai: Government railway police (GRP) will soon be guiding passengers through crowded railway stations in the state.
    Passengers who walk into Central, Egmore and other railway stations in the state will be able to find arrival and departure information, coach details and other information from railway police officials at mobile kiosks.
    As giant display boards at railway stations have stopped working and audio quality of announcements is poor, passengers often approach police officers for arrival and departure information of trains at the Chennai Central station. The situation is similar at other major railway stations in the state.
    So, GRP with Vodafone plan to set up mobile kiosks which will be used by police officers at 10 railway stations across the state. In Chennai, the kiosks will be set up during this week.
    “The kiosks can be set up anywhere on railway platforms. It will function like a help desk,” said a senior official of the GRP.
    Such kiosks will be introduced at Central and Egmore stations in Chennai, Coimbatore, Kanyakumari, Rameswaram, Salem, Madurai and Trichy. GRP will also hand out pamphlets to passengers to create awareness about crimes on trains.
    “We will be distributing pamphlets to create awareness among passengers about chain snatching, luggage theft. The kiosks will also come in handy when special awareness drives are conducted. As the kiosks can be set up on railway platforms, police officials can handout pamphlets to passengers before they board trains,” said the GRP official.
    Display boards at Chennai Central have not been functioning for the last three months. Though, the display boards installed in the new portion of the station started working recently, the large boards in the heritage building’s concourse area work erratically.
    “The boards in front of platforms four and five were not working when I travelled last week. It is very difficult to find train information from the smaller boards at the station. The audio announcement too is poor and hardly audible in the crowded railway station,” said P Ashok Kumar, a frequent traveller.