Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Stampede is a red signal to the government' that was published in Newsband

Stampede is a red signal to the government

Passengers were caught in a stampede at Elphinstone railway station's foot over bridge in Mumbai on Friday. It was a tragedy. 22 people lost their lives.

The foot over-bridges at the over-crowded stations on Mumbai’s suburban train network are virtual death-traps. The dangers at this particular railway station have been repeatedly highlighted but to little effect. The railway authorities have done little. They increase the number of trains but don’t provide more space for the exploding number of commuters. The choked exit points, especially during peak traffic hours, are dangerous.

Funds are not the problem. Indifference, callousness and lack of accountability are. Overcrowding on public transport and at public spots cannot be wished away. Authorities should show respect for human life and dignity. Citizens have a right to expect that they do not have to put life and limb at risk every time they venture out into public spaces. So many lives have been lost because of systemic failure in the country’s biggest city.

The Mumbai stampede was preventable. The financial capital depends mainly on the 300 km suburban system, which has some of the highest passenger densities for any city railway in the world. Yet, it has no single accountable manager.  Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has called for a quick survey of the suburban stations to identify areas of concern, but this is something that should have been done without waiting for a disaster

The latest carnage is evidence of the failure of civic policy to factor in the need for pedestrian access, and it applies not just to stations but to the wider city. The immediate requirement to end civic bedlam is clear pathways inside and adjoining railway stations of obstacles, install escalators, create multiple entry and exit points, and put in place an organised feeder transport network to stations and bus termini.

The stampede is a tragic red signal to our governments that urban infrastructure is falling apart at the seams and a revamp cannot be postponed any longer. People pay for their travel and yet have to suffer the indignity of being herded like cattle into cramped train compartments, stations and makeshift rain shelters like foot over-bridges.

The tragedy happened a day after railway minister Piyush Goyal announced plans to double Mumbai local train services in three years and increase train length. It is now clear that stations are also in need of upgradation. Overburdened infrastructures due to increase in population many folds and our chaotic way of living along with poor rate of infrastructure renewal are causing these tragedies.

The infrastructure of Mumbai was designed by the British somewhere during the early nineteenth century and their constructions whether it were the railways or the suburban trains or other issues were in relevance to that period with say another hundred years ahead of time. But the population have increased by leaps and bounds and the infrastructure is suffering the deficit. Let alone the Elphinstone station incident, the overhead bridges in Kurla and Dadar stations are pathetic and in fact as regulars people dread going up the overhead bridge wherein the crowd moves during peak hours at a snail's speed and a collapse of the bridge if it ever were to happen would be catastrophic with human casualties being quite high. Although railway accidents those of suburban trains in Mumbai have become negligible the conditions of overhead bridges need a serious review and revamping. There has been no doubt a negligence on the part of the government nevertheless implementation of repair and maintenance work is a challenge in itself.