Protests hit suburban services in Mumbai after train runs over school student

Mumbai: A 13-year-old school student was on Tuesday run over by a train in Mumbai triggering protests from locals, who disrupted suburban and main line services for almost an hour on the Central Railway route. According to a railway official, the victim, Suraj Vohra, was run over by a train while crossing the tracks under Hancock Bridge between the Sandhurst Road and Byculla stations at around 11 a.m. After the mishap, Vohra was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors pronounced him dead, the official said. [caption id=“attachment_2628954” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The boy was a student of St.Peters’ High School Mazgaon and he was identified by the school principal. Angry over the incident, irked locals living near both the stations, came on to the tracks and blocked the movement of suburban as well as long distance trains between Byculla and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), hindering services for an hour thereby causing discomfort to passengers. They were demanding the presence of senior railway officers on the spot and construction of either a Road Over Bridge (ROB) or Foot Over Bridge (FOB) after the century-old, British-era Hancock Bridge (located between Byculla and Sandhurst Road stations) was demolished recently. However, the agitators were soon dispersed after assuring them of early action and train services were restored around 1.45 pm. Commenting on the development, a senior CR official said, a case of trespassing has been registered and administration has taken a serious note of the incident. Stating that precautionary measures would be taken soon, the officer also appealed public not to cross railway tracks. A noted railway activist and member of National Railway Users Consultative Committee (NRUCC) Subhash Gupta said, “It was the collective duty of railway, BMC and state government to provide alternate arrangements to cross the track after the bridge was dismantled last month.” PTI