'Need for double police manpower'

The Government Railway Police (GRP) have sought to double their manpower and proposed for 3500 additional policemen to the state government. The current workforce of 3000 policemen is falling short to control the Mumbai Suburban Rail network due to increase in the number of commuters. GRP will also suggest railways to increase police chowkies and railway police stations for better law and order. Shockingly, since 1999, the strength of GRP has not been increased.

"We have a strength of 3000 policemen and are short of 3500 policemen. We have proposed for the additional force for efficient policing," said Niket Kaushik, Commissioner of Police, GRP.

"We will conduct a survey of railway stations and submit our findings to the Railways department as to where we would require more police chowkies and stations. A few police stations are located far away from the railway station which makes it difficult for the commuters to reach out to us and also increases our response time if we need to reach out to any emergency," another GRP officer said.

The 13 committees, which has been formed by the railways to study the crowd management measures, will have a GRP officer who will submit its findings to the railways. "We will be waiting for the agenda of the meeting and its conclusions. The onus is on the Railways to first develop infrastructure and provide relief to the commuters."