Mumbai RPF to locals: Get your sheet together for the monsoon

RPF officers have been serving notices to those residing along CR tracks

To ensure that flying plastic sheets used to cover homes do not affect the punctuality of the Central Railway when it rains heavily, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) in June started serving notices to hundreds of hutment dwellers and residents of housing societies located along the railway tracks, asking them to remove the sheets from their rooftops.

The order was initiated after the officials came across a couple of incidents in which some plastic sheets and dish antenna flew from the rooftops of the hutments during the rain and landed on the tracks, disrupting local trains.

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A RPF officer said, "This is a major problem along the harbour line, as many hutments are located on that patch. Over 500 people reside between Wadala and GTB station at Reay road, hutments are on the railway overbridge, just above the OHE. We went to these places and asked locals to remove the plastic sheets."

The notices are being served so that none of these sheets or dish antennae land on the railway tracks when it rains heavily

Speaking to mid-day about the drive, Ashraf KK, senior divisional security commissioner, CR, said, "In the monsoon, societies and slums near railway tracks use plastic sheets to avoid water leakage. However, this is a threat to railways because high-speed winds may bring these articles on the tracks or on the overhead wire, which would disturb the punctuality of the railways. We have instructed every RPF post to visit localities near the tracks, serve them a notice and alert them to take care of these articles. We have convinced locals to remove plastic sheets."

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In their notice, RPF has mentioned that if any of these articles come in contact with the overhead equipment (OHE) and cause any disturbance to railway punctuality, they will book the locals under section 154 (endangering safety of persons travelling by railway by rash or negligent act or omission) of the Railways Act.

A local who resides along CR tracks said, "We are also taking precaution by tying the sheets with ropes so they don't fly away. The railway police is taking precautionary measures and asking us to remove the sheet, because of which we are facing water leakage."

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