The great summer exodus defined by overcrowding and harried travellers

While a stampede-like situation briefly emerged at Udhna junction, in Surat, on Sunday, the heavy rush observed at LTT and Bandra terminuses on Sunday and Monday reflected the helplessness of migrant workers struggling to reach home despite the Indian Railways (IR) announcing 18,262 Summer Special train trips, till July

MUMBAI: The sight of a swarm of people huddled under scorching corrugated metal roofs and temporary sheds at railway terminuses contrasts with the very idea of a summer vacation. The rush of migrant labourers and their families at Bandra, LTT, CSMT, Pune and Surat stations projects a tough test of human endurance.

On Monday, at LTT people queued up in large numbers; the rush caused the barricades to crash to the ground (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

While a stampede-like situation briefly emerged at Udhna junction, in Surat, on Sunday, the heavy rush observed at LTT and Bandra terminuses on Sunday and Monday reflected the helplessness of migrant workers struggling to reach home despite the Indian Railways (IR) announcing 18,262 Summer Special train trips, till July.

The number of passengers being ferried is staggering: Surat and Mumbai on the Western Railways (WR) zone saw nearly 1,67,000 people fighting to board north and east bound trains on Sunday, while on the Central Railways (CR) route 45,000 passengers departed from Mumbai and Pune.

CR has approved 74 trains (3,082 trips) till July, while WR has approved 106 trains (2,078 trips) for the same period. CR will run 292 trips of special trains till April 26, ferrying people Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal – for the holidays and the upcoming elections.

On Monday, Avdesh Kumar, 30, a resident of Nalasopara, was seen waiting for eight to nine hours at Bandra Terminus to board a train to Mau, in Uttar Pradesh, along with three of his family members. He bought a chalu ticket (tickets to unreserved general coaches) for the family. He was one of the many standing or sitting in serpentine queues on the floor of the station’s waiting area. The cloth tents, also called the holding area, were insufficient to hold such a large crowd. For some, slipping out to buy bottled water or use the washroom would mean risking losing their spot.

Kumar, and others like him, have no option but to endure this situation. “My sister is getting married in a couple of days. And I am carrying a mountain of luggage for the upcoming wedding. Touts were asking ₹3,000 for a seat in the sleeper class, but I could not afford that. So I paid ₹300 for a general ticket for each family member,” said Kumar, waiting to board the holiday special from the terminus.

Another passenger Shivam Gupta, 26, was seen standing amidst a sea of luggage on Sunday. A resident of Chembur, Gupta was headed for Jaunpur, UP, which is served by only one direct Western Railway (WR) train twice a week. He managed to secure 3AC tickets for his family, including his sister-in-law and two children aged three and ten.

“The heat is suffocating, and the crowd is so dense that passengers from the sleeper and general classes are entering the AC coaches,” said Gupta. “Reaching the toilet is a feat, as we risk losing our place to someone else who is holding an unreserved ticket.”

“We are making every arrangement possible and running many Holiday Special trains. While the platforms get crowded during specific hours, at other times the holding areas are empty,” said a WR official, adding, “In Surat, on Sunday, a group of people jumped the barricades, compelling the RPF to use their lathis to hit the barricades to push back the crowd.”

While holding areas in all platforms are designed to prevent stampedes, the sheer density of travellers, driven by wedding season and the summer harvest, renders even the best-laid plans fragile.

On Monday, at LTT people queued up in large numbers; the rush caused the barricades to crash to the ground. “We have made train-wise segregation of queues at these stations inside the holding areas. Although, there is a rush, but the situation is not chaotic,” said a CR official.