22 commuters die in stampede at Mumbai railway station

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, September 29

Twenty-two people — eight women among them — suffocated to death in a stampede at Mumbai’s Elphinstone Road on the Western Railway, police and Government Railway Police officials said.

Another 39 people suffered serious injuries, railway officials said. Authorities have yet to identify three out of five victims, including three women, since their identity documents were lost in the melee.

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The mishap occurred at around 10.45 am when office-goers crammed together on a foot over bridge to escape from sudden rain, police said. The problem was worsened after water began to leak from the roof of the bridge causing electric wires overhead to spark. “One woman lost her balance and fell on the slipper stairs tripping several of those on the bridge,” a Government Railway Police official said.

Commuters who couldn't get off the bridge were seen clambering over the railings to jump off the bridge to prevent being suffocated.

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Regular commuters told reporters that the foot-over bridges at Elphinstone Road railway station were too narrow to handle the number of passengers.

With the textile mills of old outside the railway station making way for swanky offices, the number of commuters have increased while the infrastructure did not keep pace, observers felt. The number of commuters on the FOB that connects Elphinstone Road on the Western Railway line to Parel on the Central Railway line increased suddenly
when four trains arrived at the station simultaneously, officials said.

The mishap happened amidst tight security since Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal was scheduled to rename Elphinstone Road railway station as Prabhadevi. Goyal was also scheduled to flag off 60 new train services in the city. The programmes were cancelled following the accident.

Later in the afternoon, the minister said an inquiry has been ordered into the incident. The Maharashtra government has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased.

Angry commuters took to social media to say that their calls to the railway helpline did not result in any assistance for more than 30 minutes though railway police personnel were present a few metres from the bottom of the bridge.

Mumbai's mayor V Mahadeshwar told reporters in the afternoon that nine women and 21 men have been admitted to hospitals with serious injuries and requested people to donate blood at various hospitals.

Quick to grab some political mileage, local MLA Ajay Chowdhary of the Shiv Sena blamed the central government for the mishap. “The railways ministry is responsible for the mishap. Instead of giving us enough facilities you are selling us dreams of bullet trains,” Chowdhary said.