Mumbai: An all-out effort for inclusion of women in the Indian Railways was emphasised as an all-women crew operated the Mumbai-Pune Deccan Queen Express this evening and Matunga Road Station on the Western Railway (WR) became the second one to have an all-women staff.

Whilst the Central Railway (CR) became a record holder to have Matunga Station on its line to be manned by an all-women staff, the WR posted a total of 31 women personnel as frontline staff from commercial, operational and security departments from Thursday onwards to commemorate International Women’s Day.

In the new experiment of having an all-women crew aboard the Deccan Queen, Asia’s first woman driver and loco pilot (Mail) Surekha Yadav took to the motorman’s cabin and was assisted by Trushna Joshi. Sweta Ghone was given the honour to work as ‘On duty guard’ to give the clearance by waving the green flag. The ticket checking staff, railway protection force personnel and electric technicians were also all women.

“This is another step towards recognising the presence of women in all walks of life, including complicated and technical train operations,” said Sunil Udasi, chief public relations officer, CR.

CR has several women achievers in its ranks including Yadav, who has been the recipient of President’s Award and Mumtaz Kazi, the first motorwoman of India, who received the President’s Award last year. Mamta Kulkarni, the first woman station master of Mumbai Division, is already independently managing Matunga Station, whilst Rekha Mishra, Sub-Inspector of Railway Protection Force is credited with the onerous task of protecting, rescuing and bringing similes on the faces of 900 runaway and kidnapped children in Mumbai and has rightfully earned the President’s Award for this year’s Women’s Day.

CR’s D K Sharma, general manager, has given directives to all the divisional railway managers of CR — namely Nagpur, Bhusaval, Pune and Solapur Divisions — to nominate one station on their division to make an “All Women Station.’ Towards this objective, Ajni suburban railway station, around 3km from Nagpur Division, has been identified and will be functional from Thursday.

Deccan Queen and Koyna Express will henceforth be permanently manned by women ticket checking staff.

The Carriage and Wagon Depot at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai has a strong presence of women employees and hence, CR is in the process of renovating their changing room with several amenities like water purifier, dining table with chairs, dressing table, wall clock, signages, curtains and sanitary pad dispenser with incinerators. It has also been decided to extend similar facilities at other places where there is a sizeable presence of women employees.

On the occasion of Women’s Day, a Special Counter at the suburban concourse of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) station was set up and manned by women for seeking suggestions from women commuters. All the suggestions will then be screened by railway administration and implemented.