Maninagar becomes an all-woman railway station

Ahmedabad: If you go to Maninagar railway station or its reservation counter, you will only encounter women. Maninagar railway station will now be run by an all-women team. It becomes the first such station in the state and the fourth in the country.
Maninagar railway station and Matunga Road station on the Western Railway line in Mumbai became all-women stations from Thursday, International Women’s day.

Ahmedabad division officials said the commercial department has deployed 23 commercial clerks and three operating staff (stationmaster and points persons) and 10 Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel at Maninagar railway station. In all, 36 front line staffers at the station will be women.

In another first for Western Railway, from Thursday, the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Shatabdi Express will have an all-woman ticket checking crew. Currently, of the six TTEs on the Shatabdi Express, only two are women. Women TTEs are usually deployed on platforms. Officials said the women staffers are from Mumbai and will return with the same train.Station superintendent Jayashree Pillai said that, for her, this the best gift to women on International Women’s Day. She said that the railways has entrusted women with great responsibility and they will live up to the organization’s expectations. Pillai said handling the station would be a challenge. Pillai said she and her team will get support from the organization.

Central Railway’s Matunga station was the first station to be run solely by women. The second such station was Gandhinagar railway station in Jaipur.