Western Railway's RPF launches app for women's safety

Mumbai: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Western Railway (WR) has developed and introduced a mobile application for the security of women commuters travelling between Churchgate and Virar suburban railway stations.

The free app, 'Eyewatch Railways', launched last month, has been developed by RPF of Western Railway in collaboration with Eyewatch Technologies Pvt Ltd. It can be downloaded on an android phone from Google Playstore and on i-Phone from i-Store, said chief PRO of WR Ravinder Bhakar.

"This app has an alert button, by tapping which or simply pressing the power button four times, Eyewatch Railways notifies the RPF Control and informs the user's call guardians via SMS. It has location updation feature as well, which allows the RPF Control Center to view the commuter's constantly updated locations until she reaches at a safe destination," he said.

This app helps women commuters in times of emergency, as they can immediately send out their location, video and audio which can instantly be viewed on the emergency response control centre at the RPF Control room at Mumbai Central, he added.

"The eight chosen guardians, doctors and security personnel also receive the alert SMS and automatically a phone call is made to the them (guardians). It functions only when a commuter uses it while on railway premises," he added.

The application has been customised for the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to dispatch an immediate response by sending RPF personnel from the nearest station to help the Women Commuters, the official said adding, "Over one lakh passengers have downloaded the app so far."

According to Bhakar, this app has audio/visual stream facility as well, through which Eyewatch automatically records up to 60 seconds pre-alert audio and 20 seconds post-alert video.

"In addition to it, it displays the current battery (status of the user's phone), network signal strength, blood group, type of emergency along with other important data that can be viewed on the web-based Eyewatch Control Center located at the RPF Control Room," Bhakar said.