760 people died on Mumbai suburban railway tracks in six months: GRP

At least four persons lost their lives every day on suburban railway tracks in Mumbai in the past six months, even though local trains are not yet open for general public

At least four persons lost their lives every day on suburban railway tracks in Mumbai in the past six months, even though local trains are not yet open for general public. According to the statistics compiled by the Government Railway Police (GRP), 760 people have died on suburban railway tracks in Mumbai from January 1 to June 30 this year. The deceased include 665 men and 95 women. The GRP data, however, revealed that a maximum of 490 died while trespassing. Last year, 730 people had died while crossing the railway line.

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Police officers said that local train travel is restricted only to people engaged in emergency and essential services due to the pandemic. They said since the crowd is less (in and around suburban railway stations), people tend to take short cuts by crossing the lines, assuming that the train services have reduced.

Activists, however, maintain that the cause of deaths on railway lines is due to the illegal entry points. “Railways should put up fences between tracks connecting two platforms to bring down the number of track-crossing and do more experiments like closed doors of local trains to minimise the problem of overcrowding and people falling off running trains,” said Shakil Ahmed, a railway activist.

In the past six months, 106 people have died due to falling from running trains and around 30 people died by suicide on railway tracks and five commuters died as they were hit by poles close to railway tracks.

The data also revealed that 111 people lost their lives due to natural causes while three were electrocuted.

According to GRP figures, this year, a maximum number of deaths are recorded on Central Railway (CR) with around 460 commuters losing their lives between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) to Kalyan till June 30 this year. Throughout 2020, CR had reported 523 deaths, and 1,763 in 2019.

In 2020, train services were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic which directly impacted the accidents in tracks, thus reducing deaths on tracks considerably. Last year, 1,116 people lost their lives and 878 people suffered injuries on Mumbai’s suburban railway lines, as compared to 2,691 deaths and 3,194 injuries reported in 2019.