CISF pitches for dedicated Metro helpline

| SUNIL THAPLIYAL

Published : Sep 17, 2016, 1:52 am IST

Updated : Sep 17, 2016, 1:52 am IST

The Central Industrial Security Force has asked the department of telecommunications to allocate it a dedicated helpline for the Delhi Metro rail network to deal with distress calls.

The Central Industrial Security Force has asked the department of telecommunications to allocate it a dedicated helpline for the Delhi Metro rail network to deal with distress calls. Sources said that one of the helpline is allocated to the DMRC for general enquiries on automated replies and another four-digit help line (1511) is with the Delhi police. The automated choice based replies makes it unsuitable for any distress calls specially related to security of lady passengers.

Around 4 complaints each day and 848 complaints (January-August) have been received by the existing CISF helpline number 22185555.

Sources said that on August 28, DOT had responded to CISF’s earlier request in which it had said that Short Code ‘155370’ is already allocated as helpline to CISF, Delhi metro rail. Furthermore, Short Code ‘1511’ has been issued as Police Related Service for all Metro Rail Projects across the nation and further conveyed to utilize the pre-existing above short code due to limited availability of numbering recourses.

Meanwhile, in response of the August 28 reply from DOT, the CISF on September 9 responded that the Short Code 155370 is allocated to DMRC as their general enquiry on automated replies and not to CISF. Four-digit helpline 1511 is with the Delhi police and again often not attendant by the operators. The automated choice base reply makes it unsuitable for any distress call. Moreover, Delhi police is not first responder for on board distress call in the Delhi metro. “CISF is the first responder of any of the distress call as it is responsible for the security of metro network. Later DMRC and police come. So a dedicated number will help the commuters specially for the women to feel safe in case of any unwanted incident happened with them,” said the sources.

“There is a dedicated helpline of CISF and DMRC also if any commuter faces any problem it can also inform the metro operator/driver as each metro coach has the emergency number,” said a metro official on the condition of anonymity.