Over 23,000 Lives Lost In Mumbai Local Trains Since 20 Yrs, Making Continuous Efforts To Improve: Western Railways Tell Bombay High Court

In the last 20 years, a total of 23,027 lives have been lost in Mumbai's "life line" i.e. local trains and at least 26,572 citizens have sustained injuries, the Railways told the Bombay High Court recently. 

This comes in an affidavit filed by the Senior Divisional Security Commissioner, Western Railways, in response to the order of a division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar, calling for a 'robust' system to prevent deaths in local trains.

In his affidavit, Santosh Kumar Singh Rathore, the Senior Divisional Security Commissioner, annexed a detailed chart indicating the number of deaths from the year 2005 till July 2024 and the data for persons injured during these 20 years. The affidavit has been filed in the PIL filed by one Yatin Jadhav, through advocate Rohan Shah, highlighting the systemic issues causing these fatalities and proposing measures for improvement.

Defending the Railways, the affidavit states, "It is incorrect that there is no sign of reducing the number of incidents. The incidents have reduced despite 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. 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."

Further, the affidavit highlights that a total of 1/3rd of the total passengers over entire Indian Railways, are dealt by the Mumbai Suburban Systems of Central and Western Railways, which in other words, would mean that Mumbai alone has at least 65 per cent of entire India's railway passengers.

"However, it may not be kindly construed that we are trying to justify the incidents of injury and deaths over traffic. We condemn every single incident. It is pertinent to mention that each and every Untoward incident is being investigated/enquired by GRP as per BNSS previously called as CrPC and the conclusion is being made on the basis of the facts and relevant documents and the same is being monitored by the competent authority," the officer told the court in the affidavit.

The officer further said that it would be incorrect to blame the Indian Railways for failure to perform its duty and bring down the high number of deaths and injuries.

"Before blaming any system for inaction, the Petitioner must obtain complete knowledge and information on 'action taken and constrains.' Had the Petitioner approached Railways for information, the same would have been provided for his better appreciation. Petitioner never approached railways for seeking any information. ln every system there are constraints and citizens should appreciate it in correct perspective," the affidavit states.

However, at the same time the railways sought "due cooperation from the passengers not to cross the tracks and not to travel on footboard.

Further, the affidavit points out that the suburban railways are already running to their full capacity and the frequency between two trains is also optimum. It pointed out the 'path constraints' as one of the reasons for not  starting more trains.

"Introduction of services will cause remarkable reduction in speed & unreasonable delays in trains due to terminal constraints & other unforeseen factors. It will also create a cascading effect on other trains & will make train operation extremely difficult. In this case, the requirement of rakes will increase for running the same number of services. The AC services provide safest mode of transportation as it reduces the chances of accident due to travelling on footboard, getting down from running train, etc However, during the heavy rush, travelling passengers obstruct the door closing activity, which results in delay of the train & in turn delay other trains with cascading effect," the affidavit highlighted. 

Change Office And School Timings In Mumbai 

The officer further blamed the 'dense rush during the peak hours' as one of the major reasons for the deaths and injuries caused to the passengers. He therefore, suggested the court to consider ordering the State Government to 'stagger' the timings of offices and schools so that all the citizens need not travel at the same time (mostly 08 AM to 11 AM and 05 PM to 08 PM).

"The morning peak hours are from 8am to 11am and evening peak hours are from 5pm to 8pm. Rush during peak hours is normally of daily commuters who travels from residence to work place and back. Normal office hours have most of the establishment starts from 9:30am to 11am. The best possible solution is to stagger this office start time," the affidavit reads.

Staggering office timings may be a solution to some extent, the officer said, adding, "Therefore we solicit the indulgence of this court for necessary direction to the State Government to take adequate measures to implement staggered office hours. The Railways can only make appeal however, it is possible if the State Government issues a resolution directing various sectors to have different office timing viz in all establishments (all banks, all education institutions, all pharmaceuticals, all logistic support entities production units, private offices, Golt./ semi Govt./ PSU etc.)"