Lockdown lowers WR track deaths by more than 50%

MUMBAI: Call it a silver lining to pandemic induced curbs, casualties due to track crossing have reduced by more than half on the Western Railways.
Trespassing related deaths reduced from 528 in 2019-20 to 222 in 2020-21. Besides the fact that the volume of passengers has been much lower than pre-Covid times, the completion of infrastructural works on WR has also contributed towards bringing down the number of fatalities.
The Goregaon to Dahisar section had the highest deaths for two consecutive years— 169 casualties in 2019-20 and 63 in the past financial year. It was followed by the Mira Road-Vaitarna section.
“Stations like Borivali, Nalasopara and Virar are densely packed during peak hours and many travellers take a short-cut by hopping across the tracks. But a key reason for trespassing deaths is the presence of slum colonies adjacent to the tracks,” said GRP senior inspector Bhaskar Pawar, who has headed police chowkies in both these sections. At Dahisar, for instance, shanties have come up inside railway land. There are slum colonies at Kandivali and Goregaon. Residents frequently cross the tracks to go to work or youngsters to travel to college. In the fringes of the city, people use tracks to walk for large distances when there is no permanent road constructed by rural authorities. WR officials said 276 encroachments have been removed from the suburban section and drives will continue.
“We roped in civil engineering officials to devise infrastructural solutions to prevent deaths. About 15 kms of boundary wall has been constructed in the suburban section and wherever walls couldn’t come up, strong fencing was put up as a physical barrier to deter trespassing. Gaps in 71 boundary walls were plugged in the past two years,” said Sumit Thakur, WR spokesperson. Gates, manned by private securitymen, were installed at 33 locations where existing boundary walls had to be broken for construction. Platform height was raised at 145 locations to reduce the gap between the door of the rake and the platform.
Nearly 14000 people were prosecuted for trespassing in the past two years. “We want to encourage commuters to use FOBs and dissuade them from hopping across tracks and that prompted the installation of dividers between two seats of tracks at all stations. Our mission is to achieve zero deaths on the railways,” said Thakur.