Mumbai local railway police helpline - 9833331111

Medical aid or lost baggage, rly helpline comes to the rescue

When Ninad Pimple, 37, a technical support manager in a private company at Bandra, forgot his laptop bag on the rack of a first-class compartment of a Churchgate-bound train in April, he did not panic. He walked into the Bandra stationmaster’s cabin and told him about the situation. The stationmaster called up the railway police helpline and the Railway Police Force recovered the bag. The railway police helpline has helped at least 155 commuters get their missing laptops back since its launch in 2008. “In the last three-and-a-half years, we have received 4,63,000 calls on the helpline, of which 14,012 were made to report loss of baggage,” said BD More, additional DGP (railways). Besides laptops, the helpline has helped return a total of Rs6.92 lakh, 893gm ornaments, 39 digital cameras and 77 mobile phones to their respective owners after verification. “The railway police helpline — 9833331111 — was the brainchild of then additional DGP (railways) KP Raghuvanshi, who inaugurated it at the GRP headquarters in Wadibunder on November 12, 2008,” said More. The railway officials also get many calls regrading accidents and seeking medical aid on the helpline. On January 22, 2010, retired Central Railway officer Ravi Shankar Khatri, 70, was admitted to Western Railway’s Babu Jagjeevan Ram Hospital at Mumbai Central for a knee replacement operation. “The hospital authorities said they needed two bottles of AB Rhblood. My son went to several blood banks, but in vain. Finally, he called the helpline asking them to arrange for the blood. They did so within an hour,” said the Navi Mumbai resident. Since its launch, the helpline has received 1,303 calls about railway accidents. The government railway police send medical aid to the accident spot and rush the victim/s to nearest hospital. The helpline has also received 380 calls from commuters seeking medical help for co-passengers who have either taken or fallen off a running train. “The helpline helps rush medical help by sending the message to the nearest railway station,” said Rolfie Pereira, deputy superintendent of police.