Stars to endorse safety

KOCHI: Hailing actor Mohanlal for offering free service to help the railways in its campaign to increase awareness on safety at railway level crossings, the Railways on Saturday said it was open to getting support from other actors in the campaign. The support extended by actors, including Jagathi Sreekumar and Suraj Venjaramoodu, has been  commendable. “The Railways is using the endorsement of Mohanlal and other actors in alerting people to remain vigilant while crossing manned and unmanned stations for the last few years and is not paying any remuneration to the actor,” Rajiv Dutt Sharma, Manager, Southern Railways told Express.The Railways will continue to use the video at different places in the coming days. “We are looking forward to including more celebrities in the campaign and will try to discuss the matter with some popular actors,” he said, on the sidelines of the flagging off of the final phase of the mini-bus-mounted Ratha Yathra from Kanyakumari to Guruvayur.When asked if the railways was willing to seek the help of actor Prithviraj in the campaign, he said the Railways would welcome anyone to join the campaign. It will also seek the help of female actors in helping the Railways create awareness among the people to follow minimum precautions while passing through a railway crossing.The Railways also released a series of video campaigns on improving railway safety which is vital to thickly populated cities like Kochi which had witnessed accidents at level crossings.