Mumbai: Coolie No. 1 will now be your safety sahayak

In a bid to upgrade railway coolies, Western Railway will train them in CPR, fire safety and digital payments. By doing so, the railway authorities want the licensed porters to play an additional role in passenger safety and have improved interaction with passengers.

"The initiative has been named ‘Coolie No. 1' and it is aimed at mutually benefitting licensed Sahayaks (porters) and passengers. Licensed Sahayaks play an integral part in the railway system in India and add an important value in the overall train travel experience of long-distance passengers," a WR spokesperson said.

"The newly launched ‘Coolie No. 1' initiative by the Mumbai division in its due course attempts to achieve several key points such as imparting training on fire fighting, emergency response like Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), passenger and luggage safety, personality development of Sahayaks," she said.

Passenger feedback will be sought by WR to rate the performance of the coolies

"It will enable positive interaction with customers, better responsiveness to the needs of passengers, adherence to fair and behavioural norms set by the railways, digital inclusion like imparting awareness about digital payments, maintaining their biometric data and engage them into cleanliness drives to keep station and premises clean," she added.

"The initiative was launched as a pilot experiment at Surat station and has now expanded to include licensed Sahayaks at Mumbai Central and Bandra Terminus stations," she said Coolie No 1 of the month.

"Under this initiative, a survey will be conducted where willing passengers are requested to fill out a feedback form after utilising the services of a Licensed Sahayak. The feedback form fills in details such as buckle number, rating, service, etc., of the Sahayak, among other details. Based on the data collected from these feedback forms, one Sahayak is selected and certified as ‘Coolie No. 1 of the Month.'

Additionally, in the event of any negative remarks, the administration issues a warning or takes corrective action as well. WR Mumbai plans to carry out multiple voluntary training programs and counseling sessions for licensed Sahayaks to make the travel and interaction experience of passengers better," she added.