Saviours at Stations: RPF saves 83 lives on Central Railway in three years

Realising that she had boarded the wrong train a pregnant Vandana Gautam tried to get off the moving train at Kalyan station but got stuck in the gap between the coach and the platform Itrsquos all over she thought In that split second between life and death an RPF cop raced towards her and dragged her to the platform And the force had pulled yet another passenger from the jaws of deathRPF cop SR Khandekar rescues Vandana Gautam at Kalyan on October 18In the past three years personnel from the Railway Protection Force RPF of the Central Railway have saved the lives of 83 passengers taking great risks Their Western Railway peers have pulled 28 train travellers to safety The Government Railway Police GRP too have saved 12 lives in this period RPF teams take care of 80 stations of Central Railway At times CCTV footage showing their acts of bravery gains traction on social media shining the light on the work done by the force though mostly they are confined to official recordsDilip Kumar saved the life of a physically challenged traveller at Dadar station on February 3ldquoWhen I lost my balance and slipped between train and platform I knew my time was up but within no time I was saved by a policeman He is like a lsquodevdootrsquo for me he gave me and my baby liferdquo Vandana Gautam told midday recounting the horror on October 18 at Kalyan station Her husband Chandrashekhar Gautam said ldquoI just canrsquot imagine what would have happened had he cop had not jumped and saved my wiferdquoConstable SR Khandekar the hero said ldquoWhen the train started moving I saw a woman who tried to get off but got stuck between the platform and the train There was no time to think A splitsecond delay and the woman would have come under wheels Irsquom happy I saved her and her babyrsquos liferdquoGRP cop Vijay Chavan saves a woman passenger at Dadar station on June 26 Such shows of bravery at times gain traction on social media drawing much applause from citizensOn February 3 Sunil Sonawane a Divyang person tried to board a train to Nashik at Dadar station As he struggled to get in the train had started moving Just then RPF constable Dilip Kumar sprinted towards him and saved his life ldquoSonawane was trying to hold on to the sidebar on the door I realised he wouldnrsquot be able to get in I ran towards him and managed to pull him outrdquo said a visibly pleased KumarHis colleague constable Baijnath Patel had dashed in a similar fashion to save a senior citizen at Dadar in June 2019 Though he was successful Patel suffered serious injuries in his hands and feet ldquoThe train was about to leave and the senior citizen was clinging on to the door handle trying to deboard I grabbed him pulled him towards me and we both fell on the platform I was injured but I was more than satisfied that he was savedrdquoMembers of a GRP team that walked for 4 km on tracks and through the jungle to reach an injured woman to hospital The woman a resident of Karla village had fallen off the edge of a cliff and was lying by the tracksOn June 26 of this year constable Vijay Chavan of Dadar GRP spotted a woman trying to board Howrah Express and was about to fall onto the tracks ldquoThe train was leaving the platform I rushed to the spot and pulled her back She was shakenrdquo said Chavan who handed over the passenger to the GRP and continued with his patrolling Though he soon forgot about it superiors felicitated him after being informed by his colleaguesWoman cop saves four livesRPF subinspector Kavita Sahu saved the lives of three passengers last year and one in April 2021 Last July Dilip Mandge who was supposed to travel in Kamayani Express along with his son boarded Pawan Express As soon as he realised his mistake he tried to get off the running train He fell down and could have been under the wheels in a second Thats when Sahu and a staffer from Maharashtra Security Force pulled him away from the train While Sahus hand was badly injured she said ldquoMore than my injury I feel great to have saved a persons life The happiness and satisfaction to act in time and do my duty acted like a medicine or healing forcerdquoKavita Sahu RPF subinspector has saved four passengers in the past two yearsMandge a resident of Chalisgaon Jalgaon said ldquoIt was the police that saved his life God had come for me in the form of uniformed personnelrdquo Ulhasnagar resident Vijay Kumar Patel 57 was returning from Varanasi when he tried to get off the moving train at Dadar station Vijay Kumar said he saw his entire life in a flash as he got dragged on the platform holding on to the door sidebar He was saved by an RPF jawan ldquoIt all happened so fast that I could not understand or think anything I will thank the RPF jawan for the rest of my liferdquoIn another show of bravery 4 GRP cops rushed to save a woman lying injured near railway tracks on the ghat at Lonavala on June 28 this year The tribal woman had slipped from the edge of a cliff ldquoThe woman about 50 was semiconscious and asking for water We got water from a nearby village The next train passing the area was scheduled after 4 hours She had injured her back and we could not wait that long We put her in a makeshift stretcher and walked to the Karjat subdistrict hospitalrdquo said constable Dnyaneshwar Gangurde The GRP cops later shifted the woman a resident of Karla village to the Sassoon Hospital in Pune Impressed by the timely intervention by PSI TN Sarkale constables Gangurde Tushar Turde and Mangesh Gaikwad the railway commissioner has announced a cash reward of Rs 8000 each to the copslsquoGuided by inner voicersquoJitendra Srivastava senior divisional security commissioner Central Railway said ldquoThe RPF is there to help the people At such a time the jawan on duty hears his inner voice and immediately runs for help Our jawans often go one step ahead and do their dutyrdquoAn RPF cop pulls a train traveller to safety in January this yearVineet Kharb senior divisional security commissioner Western Railway said ldquoRPF has saved the lives of 28 people who lost their balance while deboarding or boarding trains at different stations of Western Railway in the last three years The jawans who save lives are called to the office of the General Manager DRM and honoured and rewardedrdquoThe GRP Mumbai have also saved 12 lives in the last three years GRP Commissioner Qaiser Khalid said ldquoGRP monitors crime activities at the railway stations and controls crowd at the stations During this time if the life of any passenger is in danger while boarding or deboarding the train the GRP are ready to helprdquo12No of lives saved by GRP staff in past 3 years28No of passengers saved by RPF cops at WR stations in 3 years80No of stations manned RPF on CR8KAward in rupees to be given to the GRP cops for helping the Karla woman