Mumbai accounts for 40% of train track deaths in India

Mumbai: Blame convention or compulsion, Mumbai train commuters breach rules every day -- boarding or alighting from running trains, trespassing, leaning, pulling stunts -- and many pay for it with their lives. According to a recent report submitted to the Ministry of Railways by the High Level Safety Review Committee headed by Dr Anil Kakodkar, of the 15,000 commuters who die on tracks across the country, 6,000 do it on the city's suburban rail system.

Many of these are owed to trespassing across tracks instead of using foot over bridges (FOBs), the report states. To bring the toll down, officials from Central Railway (CR) have been constructing boundary walls along the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST)-Thane stretch on the central line and up till Mankhurd on the Harbor line.

The Western Railway (WR) is doing the same on the 60 kms between Church gate and Virar. But the boundary walls are knocked down at spots deemed convenient by commuters bent on taking shortcuts, officials claim. Despite warnings and safety drives, there is gross underestimation of the risk associated with bending the rules while travelling in trains.

Poor track record
"We are spending lakhs of rupees on constructing these boundary walls, but time and again, miscreants damage them to be able to cross tracks. Presently, we are first aiming at filling these gaps till Thane (Parsik tunnel), then we will proceed up to Karjat and Kasara," said a senior CR official on condition of anonymity. The walls along the tracks are 1.2-1.8 metres in height. At places close to the slums, they are as high as 3 metres. "We are spending around Rs 7,000 per metre of the cement concrete walls," said another CR official. The distance between CST-Kalyan is over 60 km.

The boundary wall work has been completed at most stations like Kalwa, Diva, Dombivli, Thakurli, Ghatkopar and Kalyan, officials said. WR officials claim they have finished building these walls on most of the network, barring patches of 2-3 km on the Church gate-Virar stretch.

"We will also begin raising the height of platforms at 21 locations," said a WR official. Many people fall victim to the giant gaps between the train and platform -- especially the violet-white trains whose foot board height is more than that of the old trains.

"This report should be taken seriously as it mentions practical problems. Efforts have to be made to curb trespassing by installing fence between tracks and slope of the platforms to be chopped," said S Gupta, member, Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee. Recently the railways set up a medical room at Dadar station to render first aid to injured commuters along with an ambulance standing there.

6,000
Number of deaths on Mumbai suburban rail tracks every year due to trespassing

15,000
Number of such deaths across India (figures as per the Kakodkar committee report)

60 km
Length of tracks between Church gate and Virar; and CST and Kalyan

Holes in the system
The report also identified lack of barricading and fencing between tracks, lack of adequate number of pedestrian bridges, narrow platforms, escalators and lifts for the disabled as factors contributing to the rising number of deaths on tracks. It has recommended forming high-level task force, involving the zonal railway commuters, state government and NGOs to take measures in curbing this problem.