Railways blame weather gods for Elphinstone Road bridge stampede

NEW DELHI: The Railway Ministry on Wednesday absolved itself of all responsibility in the Elphinstone Road Station bridge collapse in Mumbai that killed 23 people last month. It placed the blame for the tragedy on weather gods instead.

A five-member committee headed by former chief vigilance officer Pratyush Sinha that inquired into incident, concluded that heavy rain and a large number of people on the bridge were the main causes of the September 29 stampede.

The committee examined evidence from witnesses, written statements of injured persons, officials of Elphinstone Road Station and footage of all CCTV cameras installed at the station including those located on the foot over bridge (FOB).                                   

“The incident occurred due to sudden downpour of heavy rains and accumulation of commuters on FOB and stair case. The situation got further aggravated when one bundle of flowers of a vendor dropped followed by someone shouting that “Majha phool padla” and some commuters mistook the word “phool” for “pull”. This may have possibly triggered panic and led to stampede,” the committee said in it’s report submitted to Anil Kumar, GM Western Railway.    

The inquiry also found that none of the witnesses supported a claim that an electrical short circuit on the bridge led to the chaos.  Meanwhile,  railway minister Piyush Goyal termed an 18 month delay in calling for a tender for the bridge a ‘wake-up call’.