Trains turn into death traps
Going by the statistics provided by the Government Railway Police (GRP) between January and March, more people have fallen out of trains and died in 2013 as compared to the previous year.
According to the GRP, the number of people who have fallen out of overcrowded locals and died on the suburban railway lines comprising all stations stood at 221 for January-March in 2013 as compared to last year’s 173 deaths for the same period.
The increasing numbers have surely set alarm bells ringing for the authorities. The railway officials, however, blame it on the manpower crunch. “With the present manpower crunch it is getting difficult for us to keep an official or men posted at a particular railway station round the clock,” said a senior GRP official.
The official also added that consequently precious time that can be utilised for preventing fatalities is being consumed in carrying our procedural work after every fatal accident.
Most of these fatalities took place at Dadar, Kurla, Thane, Dombivali, Kalyan, Karjat, Wadala and Vashi — falling under jurisdiction GRP stations on the Central line. On the other hand, Bandra, Andheri, Borivali and Vasai stations on the Western line witnessed the maximum deaths.
Every GRP station has anywhere between three to seven railway stations under its purview. While out of the 221 dead in 2013, 208 were men and 13 were women, in 2012 out of the 173 dead, 148 were men and 25 were women.
Central Railway PRO, A.K. Singh said, “The number of commuters has increased from 39.5 lakh in 2011-2012 to 42 lakh in 2012-2013 on the Central line. We are trying to bring down the numbers and have consequently increased our carrying capacity by nearly 25 per cent.”
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