The Mumbai Railway Police Commissionerate the first of its kind in the country and a parting gift from former minister of state for railways Ram Naik's is desperately looking for space to call its own. More than a month after it was set up, the commissionerate continues to function out of a police lock-up _ about 90 personnel have been housed in eight rooms _ and its pleas to the management of both railways for land to set up the police stations promised by Naik have fallen on deaf ears.

Railway Police Commissioner S MMushrif has said that talks for land are underway though sources say that the general managers of both the Central and Western railways claim that there is no land for the proposed police stations at Churchgate, Andheri, Wadala, Panvel and Vashi or to headquarter the force at CST. This despite the fact that a vast amount of space is lying unused at buildings located at CST.

The Byculla railway police station was set up inside a lock-up after a separate office for the superintendent of railways for the Mumbai Suburban Railways was set up in 1981. For the last 18 years, the Government Railway Police has been functioning from the lock-up surrounded by slums. The control room operates with a single telephone out of a ramshackle room. The situation however was set to change after Naik announced that the Mumbai suburban railways, which carry 60 lakh passengers daily, deserved to have a separate police force of its own.

The new commissionerate was inaugurated with much fanfare on October 2 in the presence ofNaik, former chief minister Narayan Rane, former deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde and other dignitaries. Naik said he was deeply touched by the ordeal suffered by commuters like Jayabala Asher and Sony Joseph and did not want the incidents to be repeated.

More than a month later, however, the new Railway Police Commissioner's office is still located at Byculla. Both the deputy commissioners of police, one each for the Central and Western Railway zones, operate from the same building. And the five proposed police stations up to man the area between CST and Bordi, Kasara and Panvel have yet to see the light of day.

According to sources, a part of land earmarked for the railway police at Vashi has been encroached upon. While there is a likelihood of providing two rooms at Panvel any such idea for Wadala has been brushed off.