Railways paid 181 crores between 2010-11 to 2014-15 as compensation for accidental deaths.
More than 18 people die daily across various suburban networks in India while maneuvering to cross the suburban rail lines, with Mumbai topping the list.
A report on suburban railway by the government's auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General or CAG tabled in parliament on Tuesday states that in a five-year period from January 2010 to December 2014, 33,445 people died on the country's suburban rail networks.
Of these, 19,868 deaths or 59 per cent occurred due to line crossing or trespassing. Of the total, 17,638 or 53 per cent took place in the Mumbai suburban section. Roughly, this amounts to 10 deaths daily. 4,880 deaths occurred as people fell of running trains in five years, of which 4,000 odd or 82 per cent were in the Mumbai section.
The other reasons for deaths in suburban train network are fall in platform gap (347), 1,319 due to hitting poles and 7,026 for other reasons. Worse, suburban networks lost Rs 13,631 crore in five years from 2010-11 as the costs far exceeded the passenger earnings.
Railways paid Rs 181 crore between 2010-11 to 2014-15 as compensation for accidental deaths. 9,798 cases were registered. 4335 were settled and 10,774 are pending.
Eight children perished at an unmanned railway crossing in Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh when a bus couldn't clear a level crossing. The report says "railways could not achieve targets of vision 2020 document. As 70% of fatalities in railways mishaps took place at level crossings."
The suburban trains carry a phenomenal load. In 2011-12, as per the report, 4,300 million passengers travelled on suburban trains - almost 500 million more than non-suburban ones.
The report also underlines that the ever so popular suburban trains are losing clients. Passengers carried during 2014-15 fell by one per cent in comparison to the earlier year.
The report also says that despite railways' claim that there has been increase in suburban train services, passengers battling jam packed trains claim that the number of passengers travelling per rake was much higher than the carrying capacity.