Western Railway to Deploy Crowd Control Staff at Andheri and Major Stations
Western Railway is preparing to deploy 20 or more contractual personnel at major suburban railway stations, including Andheri, to manage peak-hour passenger crowds and ensure AC local train doors close on time.
The dedicated personnel are scheduled to be posted across high-density stations such as Andheri, Dadar, Santacruz, Borivali, Virar, and Nalasopara. Stations with lower passenger footfall will each receive approximately 10 contractual staff members.
The deployment aims to improve passenger safety, regulate foot traffic, and prevent bottlenecks across railway premises. The staff members will be responsible for managing commuter movement on platforms, staircases, and foot overbridges, diverting passenger flows when necessary, and offering assistance during emergency situations. Their primary focus will be during the crucial periods immediately before and after trains arrive and depart, when platform congestion reaches peak levels.
Western Railway officials emphasized that the move is directly linked to maintaining the punctuality of AC local train services. During rush hours, overcrowding near automatic doors frequently prevents them from closing promptly, causing trains to remain halted at platforms longer than their scheduled duration. Railway authorities noted that eliminating even brief delays of a few seconds at individual stations could prevent cumulative disruptions across the suburban network.
A senior Western Railway official noted that saving seconds at each station helps maintain schedule integrity across the entire route while easing operational strain on the security department.
Departmental-level approvals for hiring the contractual personnel have already been granted. Western Railway is currently working on the next phase of the process to implement the deployment shortly.
Existing railway security personnel have traditionally managed crowd control alongside their core responsibilities of law enforcement, security monitoring, and passenger protection. By setting up specialized teams dedicated entirely to crowd management, the administration expects to ease the workload on security staff, enabling them to focus on primary security duties while ensuring smoother transit for everyday commuters across Mumbai's suburban network.
