Red tape will be cut, FOB to be made mandatory at all stations: Rly Minister

New Delhi/Mumbai, Sept 30: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who had rushed to Mumbai yesterday after the Elphinstone railway bridge stampede that has claimed 23 lives, on Saturday said efforts on a war-footing had been launched and critical decisions were being taken to put in place all measures for safety of passengers. One thing that has been decided is to cut down the red tape to avoid procedural delays. The Minister, who had stayed back in Mumbai, today held a meeting with Railway officers called to set them a deadline for the job assigned to them. In a series of tweets after the meeting, Mr Goyal said he had ordered that from now on foot over bridge will be mandatory, and not just an amenity, at all railway stations. He also said he was relocating 200 officers from the headquarters as field staff to strengthen ground operations and project implementation. Besides additional escalators had been sanctioned at crowded Mumbai suburban stations and later for all traffic stations. Moreover to cut red tape, he has empowered GMs to spend whatever was necessary on safety. The Minister also shared in tweets some of the other decisions taken in yesterday’s meeting. One of these is that multi-disciplinary audit teams will visit of all railway stations within a week and identify areas of concern. Besides, an action plan would be drawn up after identifying critical locations, and CCTV surveillance would be upgraded at all Mumbai stations. It was also decided to resolve all pending issues with agencies like BMC, MMRDA, CIDCO and the state government. UNI