Itarsi Junction — Platform Accident & Connecting Train — SSB GPE Practice

SSB Group Planning Exercise (GPE) illustration — candidates studying a schematic map and writing a 10-minute group plan around a GTO table.

The map

Same idea as the printed sketch on the GTO table. Gold = pucca, dashed = kaccha, blue = water, pine clumps = village. Read kilometres before you divide the group.

DN LINEUP LINE0.2 km0.2 km0.2 km0.3 km0.4 kmP2PF-2FOFO bridgeHUHealth unitSMSM officeP4PF-4 RajdhaniPRParcel roadNHand-drawn practice sketch · not an official GTO map
Thick gold = pucca. Dashed brown = kaccha. Hatched double line = railway. Blue = water. Pine cluster = village. Letter in the circle is the map code.
  • P2 — PF-2
  • FO — FO bridge
  • HU — Health unit
  • SM — SM office
  • P4 — PF-4 Rajdhani
  • PR — Parcel road

The GTO’s narration

You are a group of persons as many as you are, changing trains at Itarsi Junction, standing on Platform 2. You have the Station Master’s office phone, two stretchers at the health unit, coolie trolleys on the parcel road, and booked seats on the 11:20 Rajdhani from Platform 4. As you waited, a vendor’s foot got trapped in the coupling of a goods rake on PF-2 as the rake jerked. At the FO stairs an unattended bag was noticed and a passenger shouted “bomb”; the crowd surged. On the FO landing a woman in her last trimester collapsed. Four of you must reach PF-4 by 11:10 with luggage or you lose a medical-college interview tomorrow. Do not touch a suspected IED. Do not stop a moving rake yourself — the SM can. Now the time is 10:35 hrs. As brave young men/lady what will you do.

10 minutes — write your plan on paper

Start the clock, look at the map, write priorities, who goes where, and clock times. Nothing is typed on this page.

10:00

Idle

A complete GPE solution (for comparison)

This is one workable plan, not the only plan. The GTO wants a split group, life before duty, and no invented resources. Compare after you write.

Priority of problems

  1. 1. Life — foot trapped in the coupling on PF-2 (P2).
  2. 2. Life — pregnant passenger fainted on the FO landing (FO).
  3. 3. Property / panic — unattended bag; inform GRP/RPF, do not touch (FO).
  4. 4. Duty — four candidates on PF-4 by 11:10 for the 11:20 Rajdhani (P4).

Distance and time (from the map)

  • PF-2 → FO: 0.2 km pucca ≈ 2–3 min.
  • FO → health unit: 0.2 km ≈ 2 min.
  • FO → PF-4: 0.2 km.
  • PF-2 → SM office: 0.3 km.
  • SM → parcel road: 0.4 km.

What the group actually does

  1. Party A (2) stay at the coupling, keep the vendor still, shout to SM to freeze the rake, send for a stretcher via FO.
  2. Party B (2) take a stretcher from the health unit to the FO landing for the pregnant passenger (arrive health unit ~10:40).
  3. Party C (1) runs to SM / RPF — report the bag, cordon verbally, nobody opens it.
  4. Party D (3) shift luggage across the FO to PF-4 by 11:00. The four who must travel stay on PF-4; others join if both medical cases are stable.
  5. One candidate remains the narrator for the later group discussion in a real GPE; here the written plan is the product.

Close: Two life cases and one bomb scare are handled without anyone playing GRP. The Rajdhani is a duty problem — three people move luggage while five handle the platform.

Other GPE maps