Commuter finds unclaimed bag in compartment, Railway helpline fails to act

In a bid to ensure safety and help commuters travelling via Mumbai’s lifeline, Railways has introduced multiple helpline numbers to aid those in distress.

Among them is 9833331111, which was launched by the then additional DGP (railways) KP Raghuvanshi in 2008. The helpline was started with the help of Vodafone with an intention of benefitting rail commuters across the state. On Wednesday, however, the service failed to comply with a complaint filed by a journalist regarding an unclaimed baggage in the train’s compartment.

The journalist was aboard a CST-bound train on Wednesday afternoon. When the train was near Cotton Green station, she spotted a tiny bag, which looked like someone’s lunchbox. The scribe tried to look for a helpline number to report the unclaimed bag, but she couldn’t find any in the compartment. She, then messaged a fellow journalist, who helped her with the number 9833331111.

At 1.36 pm, the journo called on that number to inform that the train would be approaching Reay Road and that they should send someone to claim the bag. Although she was promised, no security official turned up. Worried, she made another call at 13.39 pm to inform the authorities that she is about to reach Dockyard Road, but when the train reached the platform, no one came to collect it. She made a third call at 1:46 pm, but to no avail. The unclaimed bag was lying in the compartment till the train reached CST.

When contacted by a fellow journalist, D Kanakratnam, Additional Director General of GRP said that the details were conveyed to the police, but they missed the train at Cotton Green station. The control room couldn’t inform the official at Reay Road station because he was attending to an electrocuted passenger in a nearby hospital and his phone was switched off.

However, Kanakratnam claimed that GRP officials did look for the unattended bag when the train pulled up at CST, to find out that there was no bag.

The journalist, who repeatedly tried to report something important as a responsible commuter, says that the experience was nothing short of an ordeal.