Automatic door lock in Rajdhani, Shatabdi

New Delhi, February 12

To enhance passengers’ safety and curb criminal activities, train coaches will be fitted with an automatic door locking mechanism soon.

Under the new system to be controlled by the train guard from his cabin, all doors will automatically open when a train arrives at a station and close before it departs.

At present, train doors are opened and closed manually. Incidents of passengers falling off running trains are reported regularly and the problem is acute in the Mumbai suburban section. Falling off trains is the second major cause of death as well, the first being the cases of persons being run over by trains.

“Equipped with automatic door locking system, two Rajdhani and two Shatabdi trains will be operational by April this year as a pilot project,” said a senior Railway Ministry official. Later on, the system will be replicated on all trains, including suburban services, across the country.

It would cost the railways about Rs 20 lakh per coach to make the automatic system operational. “Trains will not move unless all doors are closed. The guards will have the command control in their cabins,” the official said, “Drivers will also be given command control at a later stage.”

In the new system, doors will be opened only on the platform side and those of the other side will remain closed, thus eliminating the chances of any unauthorised entry.

The status of all doors (closed/opened) is indicated in the master control panel in the guard cabin. The new system will also eliminate chances of passengers getting off a moving train.

The mechanism provides for an audio announcement and visual indication while opening/closing activity of the door is being done. The operation of the closing or opening mechanism will not be completed if obstructions are noticed. However, doors can be locally opened with an emergency push button and after the train has stopped in case of alarm chain pulling or application of brakes. — PTI