In the costliest city of India, Mumbai, with recent incidents like a 17-year old boy cut short by a fall from an overcrowded local train, a man jumping-off in front of a moving train at Vikhroli, leaving readers wondering the cause behind the man committing such a grave sin, and compelling them to think as to what is the cost of life, in a country where 94 per cent of the population belongs to the unorganised labour sector earning minimal wages, hence, lower standard of living.
Ironically ‘Lifeline of Mumbai’, has over the years, come as more of a ‘life taker’ in form of incidents like terrorist attacks claiming lives of innocents, commuters falling on tracks due to overcrowding, suicide cases, nasty quarrels amongst commuters on board, over run by trains whilst crossing tracks, extra crowd due to Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations, or some nuts deliberately standing over the footboards or rooftops of the train and performing dangerous stunts, God only knows, to impress whom!
According to reliable sources, around 25,000 passengers fall from suburban trains (travelling on Western, Central and Harbour suburban services in Mumbai) over the last decade, of whom, almost around 7,000 commuters die while 18,000 survive as per the Government Railway Police (GRP), Mumbai. The city’s suburban rail system being overcrowded, forces passengers to risk their lives every day. Seven and a half million commuters use the local trains on a daily basis making it one of the most populated railway systems. Moreover, the extra crowd that arise due to Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in the city and many devotees being dependant on ‘Mumbai’s lifeline’ to travel in the city, sometimes end up injuring themselves, on many instances even losing their lives.
Launched in 1853, the Mumbai suburban railway network is spread across four major routes — western, central, harbour and trans-harbour, and carries more than 75 lakh passengers every day. The suburban railway system in Mumbai is the most complex, densely loaded and intensively utilised system in the world and has the highest passenger density.
The once efficient rail network, however, over the past two decades, is creaking under the weight of passenger influx, corruption and lack of investment in upgrading infrastructure. The extraordinary crowding of trains and poor commuter facilities at stations makes the Mumbai suburban train system so prone to accidents that nearly 10 people die in railway mishaps every day – a figure that would have made front-page news anywhere else in the world but meets with apathy in India.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
