Mayanagri (City of Dreams) Mumbai has survived several tragedies in the past couple of years, yet somehow, it found itself unprepared for last week's rush hour stampede that took 23 lives and injured at least 35. As the usual swarm of people crowded Elphinstone Road- Parel station, the unfortunate incident was “prima facie” triggered, as reported by the Western Railway.
Officials said a “tremendous push from behind towards the exit” caused the crush to occur on the squeaky, dangerously narrow bridge that held several passengers. There are several theories doing the round, and while nobody knows the real reason behind the collapse, many know it was expected. Some reports said heavy rain forced commuters to take shelter at the foot overbridge, and when the train arrived, people rushed to board it, leading to the stampede. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has reached Mumbai, following the mayhem. Goyal said they have also issued directions for safety and capacity audit of foot over bridges in Mumbai where congestion occurs on a massive scale. He said wherever there is a need for foot over bridges to be widened, it will be done immediately on high priority.
The minister announced an ex gratia of Rs 5,00,000 to be given by the state government and Rs 5,00,000 by the Railways to families of the deceased people. He promised to bear costs for the injured people, grievously injured to get Rs 1,00,000, minor injured to get Rs 50,000 ex gratia. The station is always known to be jam packed as it is used by people who want to interchange between Central and Western Railway stations. During work hours, there are over hundred commuters on the bridge at a time. KEM hospital officials said that some more people have been injured in the incident and the fatalities could go up. Passenger associations have been asking for a bigger railway bridge for more than two decades now.
The injured were rushed to Parel's KEM Hospital, where 20 were declared dead on arrival, and two died soon after being admitted and one died later. Dean Avinash Supe said 39 were brought in injured and were admitted. A station official said the number of passengers using both, the Elphinstone Road and Parel stations every day amounts up to 3 to 3,50,000. However, the foot overbridge that offers interconnectivity to both the passengers is only 5m wide and 32 m in length, and the staircases are even narrower.
Survivor, Yukti Marwah, 28, called herself lucky to survive. “People began pushing and shoving. I fell down but managed to get up because a man behind me helped. I don't know who he was and I couldn't even see his face because there wasn't enough space to turn around,” she said. While she was fortunate, her colleague was less so, who was trapped in the stampede and ended up unconscious.
