Mumbai: Over 52,348 persons have died in the last 15 years in the Western Railways (WR) and Central Railways (CR), the Bombay high Court was informed recently.
Affidavits were filed by WR and CR pursuant to the directions by the high court in June while hearing a PIL by one Yatin Jadhav highlighting that the fatalities amongst the commuters using the Mumbai suburban railway, which is the second busiest such system globally after Tokyo, raises a concern on account of its high deaths.
The HC, in June, had noted that a “very very serious” issue of fatalities due to falling from trains has to be addressed, and criticised the Railways, saying, “You carry people like cattle”. It had also asked the authorities to come up with a “robust” system to prevent deaths in local trains.
As per the affidavits, 23,027 lives were lost in WR, whereas 29, 321 deaths occurred in CR from the year 2009 till June 2024. The railways have emphasised that they are taking “continuous efforts” for network expansion to meet the ever increasing volume of tariff.
“It is incorrect that there is no sign of reducing. the number of incidents. The incidents have reduced despite a huge increase in volume of traffic. Further, continuous efforts are and will be taken to reduce the incidents through various immediate measures as well as network expansions,” read the affidavit by additional divisional railway manager (admin.) with CR, Shashi Bhushan.
Similar affidavit filed by senior divisional security commissioner with WR Santosh Rathore emphasises that by upgrading all the infra and due to network expansion and other measures (such as more FoBs, RoBs, widening of platforms, increased rakes, action against crossing of tracks etc) the death and injury incident have been remarkably reduced in the last 20 years.
The affidavits emphasises that the Mumbai Suburban Systems of Central and Western Railways is used by one-third of the total passengers over the entire Indian Railways. However, the railways have clarified that they are not trying to “justify the incidents of injury and deaths over traffic” and they “condemn” every single incident.
Highlighting the constraints, the railways have said that they are working at their 100% capacity and wherever possible, they have increased the number of trains and also coached per train.
To reduce the passenger traffic, the railways have said they have introduced “staggering timings” for their office by introducing two shifts and several staff have opted for the second shift. It has requested more than 800 establishments to introduce such staggering timings to reduce the passenger traffic. It has made a similar request to the State government.
“However, we did not receive effective response and therefore, we solicit the indulgence of this Hon’ble Court for necessary direction to the State Government to take adequate measures to implement staggered office hours,” the affidavits adds.
