697 commuters died after falling off trains this year

Mumbai Mirror: Mumbai: Sunday, 29 November 2015.

An RTI query has revealed that the number of deaths due to victims falling from local trains has gone up in the last decade. In 2005, 494 people died after falling from local trains, and the toll this year has already reached 697 (till November 20).

The worst year in terms of such casualties was 2013, when 901 people died after falling from trains. It was an increase of 82% as compared to the death toll in 2005, said RTI activist Anis Khan, quoting a reply received from Government Railway Police (GRP).

Questions are being raised about the commuters' safety, the local trains' capacity, and the railways' ability to respond quickly to an emergency, after a 21-year-old Dombivili resident fell off a crowded CST-bound local during the peak hours on Friday, resulting in his death.

The pictures above are grabs of a video recorded by another commuter in the second class compartment, in which the victim, Bhavesh Nakate, was desperately trying to get a foothold.

Khan said that the railway administration has failed to provide a safe and comfortable journey to the people. Most passengers who fall or slip from the running trains are struggling to get inside the compartment, just like Nakate. "The victims lose their grip and fall off, or get dashed against a pole near the railway track," Khan said.

As per the statistics provided under the RTI query, 7,686 people died after falling off trains in the last 10 years, while more than 22,000 were killed while crossing the tracks.

Activists said that the suburban railway network was on the "verge of a collapse". Transport expert Ketan Goradia said, "A local train's capacity is around 1,700 people, and during the rush hours, it carries around 5,000 commuters. You can imagine the plight of the commuters. It's a miracle that people don't die of suffocation inside the compartments."

A senior Western Railway official said that the railways were doing "everything possible" to provide a comfortable transport, but "beating the population explosion was beyond anyone's control". "If you compare the Mumbai suburban train network with its counterparts across the world, you'll see that we cater to the most number of people," the official said.

The commuters and experts, however, said that the railways could have done a lot more. "The system needs an overhaul. Signalling, station and platform layouts, track maintenance, converting all 12-coach trains into 15-coach trains... obviously, the railways have a lot of work to do," said PC Sahagal, former MD of the Mumbai Rail Vikas Nigam.