Man falls from train, rly staff reach spot hrs later

A commuters’ representative alleged on Monday that there was a delay by railway officials in attending to a man who fell from a train along the Diva-Kalamboli stretch in neighbouring Thane district. The Central Railway (CR), however, said there was no delay on officials’ part, but the spot was inaccessible by road. The man, identified as Naushad Ali (24), died after falling from the Konkan Kanya Express around 12.50 Sunday.

Advocate Adesh Bhagat, a member of Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee, a panel of commuters’ representatives set up by the CR, claimed that Ali’s body was attended only in the morning.

“Officials of Diva railway station were alerted about the mishap at 2.30 am, but no railway police or other railway official could attend to the victim as they had no ambulance,” Bhagat said.

“Finally, the Jan Shatabdi Express was given a special halt at Diva station where GRP, RPF jawans along with a porter boarded it and reached the spot after 6 am,” he said.

Even then, the railway personnel had to wait till 8 am to bring the body back by DivaRoha Passengers train, he said. The victim might have been saved had he been attended quickly, Bhagat said.

Chief spokesperson of the Central Railway Sunil Udasi said there was no delay on part of railway personnel, but the location where Ali fell was inaccessible by road.

“The search operation was launched by our men as well as relatives of the victim immediately after it was reported. The body was located by 4 am at a place which is very much inaccessible by road. The delay in locating the body was caused due to inaccurate information about the route distance,” he said.