No ambulance with GRP, help for mishap victims often arrives too late

Rly cops say lone patrol vehicle with them can't cater to vast area under jurisdiction

The Pune station Government Railway Police (GRP), who have almost 100 km of railway tracks under their jurisdiction, have been waiting for a year now for an ambulance that will take accident victims to hospitals from railway tracks. Officials say that the absence of an ambulance severely hinders their functioning, and several accident victims die by the time help arrives.

The Pune railway station GRP have stations like Daund, Miraj and Lonavla under their jurisdiction, but are struggling with limited manpower and only one vehicle for patrolling the entire area. There are at least five accidents every month under the Pune GRP jurisdiction, most of which involve people falling off trains or being hit and run over.

"Information about such accidents is itself not received on time. Then we need to drive our only patrol vehicle to the spot, but even this vehicle is sometimes not available. By the time our men reach the spot, the person is either dead or has lost a lot of blood and survival becomes nearly impossible. After an accident near Lonavla, two of our personnel had to board a train and carry back the severely injured person the same way. The person died by the time they reached," said a GRP official, requesting anonymity.

According to GRP records, there have been at least five to six railway deaths because of lack of immediate availability of transport since the beginning of the year. Another official, who also requested anonymity, said that the lone patrol vehicle cannot always be driven to all spots, since all tracks do not have a parallel road where vehicles can be parked. "If an ambulance is made available, we could at least park it at a distance and then carry the body, but using the patrol car is draining our resources," he said.

Senior Police Inspector Mahendra Rokade confirmed the state of affairs and said he has in touch with higher authorities to sort the issue. "I am also requesting the Central Railway to see if it can provide us with an ambulance," he said.u00a0