Railway Stations Will Have Special ‘Selfie Points’, Better Upgraded Services!

In October last year, 3 teenagers in Bidadi, 30 km from Bengaluru, were crushed to death on rail tracks, and the possible reason attributed by cops is that they were taking selfies.

In 2016, 2 youths were run over by train at Purushottampur railway crossing in Chunar area in Mirzapur district, when they were taking selfies, and they couldn’t hear the train approaching.

If we analyse selfie-related deaths, then India stands at an unfortunate #1 position.

And, most of these deaths have occurred near railway tracks.

Calls for creating designated selfie points have been raised in the past, but now, some concrete action would be taken by Indian Railways.

Special Selfie Points At Railway Stations Now

Indian Railways has decided to upgrade existing railway stations across India, and within the roadmap, is a proposal to create specially designated selfie points in railway stations.

These selfie points can be used by passengers and locals to click selfies, and this way, they won’t have to walk on tracks to click pictures.

As per a report published by Hindustan Times, it was mentioned that all new upgraded railway stations will have “LED lighting to brighten up all areas, charging points, selfie and meeting points and modular catering kiosks.”

New Upgraded Railway Stations Coming Soon!

Meanwhile, a slew of measures has been announced by Indian Railway Station Development Corporation (IRSDC), which aims to upgrade 600+ railway stations, all over the country.

Work has already started across 70 stations, which includes Lonavala in Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Jaipur, Delhi and Mysore.

As per Railway Board chairman Ashwani Lohani, the work to upgrade 70 stations will be carried over by respective zonal railways, besides being assisted by IRSDC.

A Railway Official said that the work on these 70 stations will be completed by 2018.

Some of the features which these new upgraded railway stations will have are:

• Improvement in façade of the station building.
• Well regulated lanes for pick up/drop and parking.
• Steel dustbins located at suitable locations.
• Development of hotels, hospitals in the area surrounding the railway stations. A public-private partnership has been mooted for the same.
• More private participation has been proposed, for better efficiency. 5 Railway Stations have been selected for this new private partnership: Anand Vihar, Chandigarh, Pune, Secunderabad and Bangalore. Private firms would be asked to deliver facility services such as ensuring cleanliness, selling of platform tickets and managing the parking.

Do you think that creating special ‘selfie points’ across railway stations will help to curb the menace of selfie deaths?

We will keep you updated as we receive more information.