10-06-2025
'2,000 Deaths Each Year': 2023 PIL In Bombay HC Highlighted Mumbai Suburban Railway Accidents
Before the Mumbai train accident, a 2023 PIL flagged thousands of deaths on Mumbai's rail network, prompting Bombay High Court to say that passengers were treated like "cattle".
A PIL, filed in 2023, had drawn the Bombay High Court's attention to deaths happening every year in the suburban railway. The PIL was accessed exclusively by CNN-News18, in the backdrop of the suburban train accident in Thane's Mumbra on Monday, in which four people lost their lives.
According to the contents, the 2023 PIL stated that 2,000 deaths happen every year on the suburban railway. It also mentioned that 2,590 commuters had lost their lives in 2023, which meant an average of seven deaths per day.
Nearly 2,441 people were injured during the same period.
A total of 1,650 deaths were reported on the Central Railways, while another 940 deaths were reported on the Western Railways.
More than 1,800 deaths were reported on Mumbai local trains, it stated.
After the PIL was submitted, the Bombay High Court had pulled up the railways and had directed general managers to look into the 'very serious issue'.
The High Court also said the human passengers are carried like 'cattle" on local trains and that the officers at the highest level should be made accountable.
Meanwhile, the Central Railway's principal chief safety officer (PCSO) said they would probe the suburban train accident in Thane's Mumbra.
It is being treated as an incident and not an accident, CR chief public relations officer Swapnil Nila told PTI.
PCSO CK Prasad visited the site earlier in the day and carried out an inspection, he added.
'Relevant information is being collected, and efforts to identify the root cause are being made. The principal chief safety officer (PCSO) will conduct an inquiry into the incident that occurred around 9.10 am," he said.
'From preliminary investigation, it is found that the passengers were travelling on the footboard," Nila said.
To avoid similar incidents in the future, all new locals will be introduced with an automatic door closure system, while existing trains will be retrofitted with it, Nila said.
A railway team reached the spot at Mumbra station in the evening and took measurements of the gap between the two fast lines (Up and Down) tracks there, other officials said.
As per Central Railway officers, eight passengers were found injured in the gap between two parallel railway tracks between Mumbra and Diwa railway stations in the morning, while five other passengers onboard the CSTM-bound Kasara-10 local sustained minor injuries.
Railway officers said the Karjat-11 local from CSMT was crossing the Kasara-10 local at Mumbra when the incident took place. It was first reported by the train manager of a Kasara-CSMT train, officials said.
Emergency response teams, including ambulances and railway medical staff, were immediately dispatched to the site, and the injured passengers were swiftly transported to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital, Kalwa, and Civil Hospital, Thane, he said.
