Eastern Railway (ER) has disclosed a detailed breakdown of Alarm Chain Pulling (ACP) incidents that disrupted 86 trains across its four divisions during May 2025, resulting in the arrest of 58 individuals for pulling emergency chains without justifiable cause. The data, compiled from Railway Protection Force (RPF) logs, exposes a pattern of misuse that is costing the network thousands of minutes in cumulative delays each month.

Worst-Affected Divisions

The Asansol and Howrah divisions bore the heaviest burden of disruptions, followed by the Malda and Sealdah divisions. Average detention times reached up to 13 minutes per incident in Asansol, 14 minutes in Howrah, and a steep 17 minutes per incident in sections of the Malda and Sealdah divisions, according to ER.

What the RPF Logs Revealed

The reasons behind the chain-pulling incidents range from careless to startling. Four passengers each in the Asansol and Malda divisions pulled the emergency chain simply because the train was passing near their native villages, bypassing scheduled halts entirely. Three passengers in Asansol and two in Howrah fell asleep and missed their destination stations — on waking, they pulled the chain to disembark.

In 10 cases, passengers claimed the activation was accidental — eight in Asansol and two in Sealdah. Two separate incidents in Asansol involved passengers hanging heavy luggage from the chains, triggering unintended activation. Another two cases in Asansol involved people who had boarded to see off relatives and could not exit before the train departed.

Four passengers in Asansol and two in Howrah resorted to ACP after boarding the wrong train. Ten passengers across Asansol, Howrah, and Malda pulled the chain after failing to board or deboard in time. One passenger in the Sealdah division admitted to pulling the chain after accidentally dropping a mobile phone from a window. Two cases in Howrah and Malda involved passengers who had left their luggage on the platform. While six cases involving unidentified persons remain under investigation, one incident involving military personnel using ACP during troop movement was also recorded.

Legal Consequences and the Crackdown

Unauthorised ACP is a criminal offence under Section 141 of the Railways Act, 1989. Penalties include imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of up to ₹1,000, or both. Throughout May, ER registered 72 criminal cases and arrested 58 individuals as part of an intensified enforcement drive. RPF teams have stepped up in-coach surveillance to apprehend offenders in the act.

Shibram Majhi, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of Eastern Railway, stated: 'Unauthorised chain pulling will have to stop to ensure punctuality.'

Why This Matters

This comes amid growing pressure on Indian Railways to improve on-time performance across its network. Each unscheduled halt not only delays the affected train but creates a cascading effect on following services sharing the same track. Notably, the sheer variety of reasons — from dropped phones to sleeping through stops — suggests that passenger awareness campaigns may need to accompany enforcement action to produce lasting results. RPF officials indicated that surveillance inside coaches will remain intensified going forward.