24X7 help for women at Central

Launched on Sunday, the centre at the old concourse area is manned 24x7 by a booking clerk, ticket collector and women RPF constable. They would identify the cab and the RPF constable would record the driver’s identity and mobile number before seeing off the woman passengers. 

“We engage only those cabs registered with the prepaid taxi stand at Central station. We will call the cab driver and if need be the passenger to confirm if the she reached the destination safely,” said a booking clerk at the facilitation centre. 

An initiative of the commercial managers of Southern railway (SR), the centre may soon have a small pharmacy attached to it. Officials are understood to be in touch with a private health major to open a pharmacy near the facilitation centre, which also has an exclusive area for lactating mothers to comfortably feed their babies. 

Separate registers are maintained to monitor the number of women using the centre. The clerks record the users’ ticket and mobile numbers and their destination. Networked with the railway server, the ticket and booking clerks would also answer all travel-related queries.

Senior SR officers told DTNext that they were even planning a ticket booking and refund counter exclusively for women at the centre, which would be extended to other major stations in the zone.

“At the old enquiry office, it would be crowded and sometimes men would be breathing down my neck, but here it is fully manned by women and I am able to move around comfortably without inhibitions,” said Sailaja Chandrasekar, a Mangalore-bound passenger. 

Though separate rest rooms are available at the other end of the station, SR might do well to open an exclusive rest room at the facilitation Centre.