Photo by BL SONI Mumbai: After the terrible tragedy of the stampede, the western railways in their release defended itself strongly not accepting responsibility for the incident. In a release issued by the railways, it was said that the bridge was intact and blamed the sudden heavy rains for the death of the people.
As per the press release, it was claimed that there was no dearth of funds for safety related works. “A new 12 mtr long Foot Over Bridge (FOB) at the north end parallel to this bridge has already been sanctioned @ cost of Rs 6.75 crore connecting Western Railway & Central Railway along with East-West connectivity.”
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The railways said it also planned to extend the platforms along with construction of this FOB and had floated a tender. “Previous Minister of Railways, Suresh Prabhu, had given in principle approval and sanctioned the construction of additional 12 mtr wide FOB at Elphinstone Road and after that the work started expeditiously. The major constraint was yard remodelling plan of Parel station of Central Railway which was freezed in February, 2017.”
The railways claim they have taken into consideration commuters’ safety for which several measures have been undertaken. 128 platforms have already been raised to reduce the gap between the trains and platforms. “Multidisciplinary audit teams will inspect all suburban stations within one week and identify areas of concern.” In 2016, railways added 19 new services to reduce overcrowding in trains and have promised more. “32 more services have been added in timetable coming from October 1.” They have assured that they will be increased to 54 from October 1.
