Eight people died every day on Mumbai's suburban railway in 2017; data shows decline in such deaths

By Chaitanya Mallapur

Mumbai: Eight people died every day on Mumbai’s railway tracks in 2017, down 20 percent from 10 deaths every day in 2013,  data  from Government Railway Police (GRP), Mumbai, show.

About 8 million  passengers  – more than the population of Hyderabad – travel on the Mumbai rail network every week day on 2,800 services with the highest passenger density in the world.

A woman was killed after being hit by a train at Mumbai’s Bandra station on 19 July, 2018, while trying to cross the tracks with her two kids who were injured, The Times of India  reported  on 19 July, 2018.

In another incident, a 50-year old banker died after she slipped into the gap between the train and a platform at Borivali station, Firstpost  reported  on 13 July, 2018.

Mumbai’s Elphinstone station was  renamed  Prabhadevi on 19 July, 2018, which led to questions about renaming stations instead of focusing on the city’s crumbling rail infrastructure.

Did bridges stop falling because we renamed Elphinstone Road station as Prabhadevi ! #justasking #mumbaiquirks The money spent on renaming could have filled a few potholes

— Ravi Subramanian (@subramanianravi) July 19, 2018

Stupidity.. Improve the service (timelines, food hygiene, security at platform & ladies coaches) .. by changing Elphinstone to Prabhadevi wouldn't affect anything to daily Mumbaikars commuters.

— आपला मराठी माणूस 🇮🇳 (@SP_from_Satara) July 17, 2018

If the name of Elphinstone Road station is changed to Prabhadevi why not change the name of Mahim station to Sitaladevi ? Everyday Railway bridges are closed because of cracks. Instead of tackling major safety issues Railways are busy changing names of the stations.

— Makarand Waingankar (@wmakarand) July 18, 2018

Some welcomed the renaming of the station.

The Railway Ministry took a very important decision today. Elphinstone Road station is now Prabhadevi.
Makes me so happy. The locality I live in, finally has a railway station.

— शिक्षित बेरोज़गार (@kaul_vivek) July 17, 2018

As many as 18,050 deaths were reported on Mumbai’s tracks over the last five years (till 20 July, 2018). Of these, 89 percent were male and 11 percent female. Many of those who died on the tracks go untraced or unidentified each year, the data show.

Source: Shodh Note: Deaths recorded by respective railway police stations.

Areas on the central line seemed to be the most deadly, with Kalyan reporting most deaths (368) in 2017, followed by Kurla (331) and Thane (324).

Passenger deaths from falling off Mumbai’s trains were “very high” as coaches carried more passengers than they were meant to, said a 2016  report  on suburban train services from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the government’s auditor.

In 2014-15, the average number of passengers per coach on Mumbai’s suburban central services was 6 percent (2,666) more than the “crush load” – double the capacity – while it was 9 percent (2,743) more than crush load on the western line services, the  data  show.

49,790 deaths reported nationwide on railway tracks over 3 years

As many as 49,790 people died on railway tracks after being hit by trains nationwide between 2015 and 2017, according to this  reply  to the Lok Sabha (Parliament’s lower house) on 18 July, 2018.

“Deaths on railway tracks occur due to trespassing, violating safety and cautionary instructions, avoiding over bridges, and using mobile phones and other electronic gadgets while crossing railway tracks etc,” the reply said.

In 2017, 173,112 people were prosecuted for  trespassing  on rail tracks.

(Mallapur is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)