More deaths and injuries on CR due to crossing tracks than WR

Ankita G Menon

MUMBAI: This year, the Central Railway (CR) has recorded more deaths and injuries due to trespassing railway tracks as compared to the Western Railway (WR). While WR has fenced the boundaries of railway tracks on both sides up to Dahanu Road station, CR still has a railway crossing at Diva which is often used by many commuters to cross tracks.

Meanwhile, stations like Thane, Kalyan and Dadar are overcrowded with both longdistance and suburban trains using these stations.

Overall, there are 996 incidents of trespassing recorded till September. Out of the 848 deaths that are recorded due to trespassing, 516 occurred within CR and 332 in WR.

Compared to the number of trespassing incidents that took place last year, both CR and WR this year have recorded 70% of such incidents till September. In 2021, there were 1114 deaths and 176 injured from January till December, while this year there are 848 deaths and 148 injured till September while crossing tracks. In 2021, most number of incidents of crossing tracks happened in Kurla, Thane, Kalyan and Borivali. The number of incidents is almost as much as last year whereas the numbers of commuters in both CR and

WR have not reached pre-pandemic levels. From an average of 79 lakh on both routes in 2019, the number has dropped to around 60 lakhs since January 2022, and has lately remained stagnant.

Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer, WR, said, “We have made provisions for escalators and lift apart from existing foot over bridges (FOB) wherever possible. Moreover, there are boundary walls along the railway track from Churchgate to Dahanu Road on WR. We also keep an eye out for any miscreants pulling down these walls and through regular checks ensure to maintain it.”

Meanwhile, along CR, stations like Kalyan, Dadar, Thane, Diva and Dombivali have the most number of incidents due to trespassing. Kalyan has the highest number of trespassing deaths at 44 this year.

“All these stations like Kalyan Dadar and Thane are overloaded with both local trains and outstation trains. This includes the number of services and commuters that use the station premises at any given point of time. With the presence of only 1 wide bridge in each of these stations, it becomes crowded for commuters also to use the bridges. This is one of the main reasons that commuters prefer crossing tracks,” said Madhu Kotian, president, Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh.

Kalyan

Injuries

Central Railway

Dadar

Deaths

Western Railway

Thane

Central Railway

Diva

Western Railway

Dombivli