Date:19/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/19/stories/2008041956922000.htm

National

The killers on the rails

MUMBAI: More than 20,000 people have been killed on Mumbai’s train system over the past five years — many of them crushed, run over or electrocuted — according to newly released official data. Mumbai’s trains carry some some seven million commuters a day, But an average of 10 people do not survive the trip each day.

Central Railway and Western Railway was forced this week to release the data, showing that at least 20,706 people have died over the past five years, after activist Chetan Kothari filed a request under the Right to Information Act. “There should be more awareness that it’s just not worth the risk. Many people who die are the sole breadwinners of their family.”

Officials blamed chronic overcrowding and reckless behaviour by passengers for most of the fatalities.

“No other city in India has so many people travelling by one mode of transport. There are a minimum of 10 deaths daily on the railways,” Commissioner for Railway safety A.K. Sharma said. — AP