Mumbai Has Highest Railway Deaths in Country Needs Immediate Measures

Railway Board furious over the principal Chief Security Commissioners and directed  to reduce track deaths in Mumbai. Local trains are considered Mumbai’s lifeline but it is increasingly becoming a ‘death trap’ for commuters.

Article source: Mumbai Mirror

On an average, nine deaths are reported on the city’s railway lines, six of which are owing to trespassing.

In a scathing letter, the Railway Board also pulled up zonal-level joint committees for failing to provide long-term solutions to the menace. These committees are tasked with identifying critical stations, sections and spots that see most casualties and offering suggestions on preventing deaths. One station’s committee, stated the letter, only sent a list of “routine” suggestions – a move that didn’t sit well with the Railway Board.

Anup Shukla, senior divisional security commissioner, Western Railway’s Railway Protection Force (RPF), said, “We inspected Borivali and Jogeshwari stations on Saturday to assess infrastructural constraints. Jogeshwari’s level crossing is one of the most chronic accident spots. In Borivali, most deaths occur after commuters fall off crowded trains or as they try to board a moving local.”

The Government Railway Police’s audit for 2016 found 174 chronic accident spots where commuters die crossing the tracks on the city’s railway lines. Of these, 133 were on the Central Railway and the rest on the Western Railway. Kurla accounted for most of the chronic spots — 23 — followed by Kalyan (21). The audit said most of the deaths on the network could have been prevented with better infrastructure, like barricades and foot overbridges to allow east-west connectivity.

In 2017 as over 3,014 people lost their lives in train accidents in the city.

Following data was revealed in a RTI data in 2017:

1,540 people were injured while travelling on the western line, 1,435 on the central line and 370 on the harbour line, the data revealed.

1,534 deaths on the central line with maximum accidents at the busiest stations like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Dadar and Byculla.

1,086 deaths on western line, at Churchgate, Andheri, Bandra and Borivali. The maximum number of deaths (76) were reported from Borivali.