Mumbai: At least five persons died and several others received serious injuries after falling off a local train under the Central Railway in Mumbra on Monday morning.
According to the railways, the accident occurred when the overcrowded train was going towards Thane’s Kasara area from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. About 10-12 passengers, who were hanging from the doors, fell off near the Mumbra station in the Thane district, officials said.
A rescue operation was launched immediately and the injured were rushed to hospital where five were declared dead on arrival. The condition of a few others is critical.
While Mumbai’s local train network is considered the city’s lifeline that carries millions of people daily, their journeys are fraught with danger, primarily due to overcrowding. Nearly every train, during the morning and evening peak hours, has people hanging out from the doors.
An inquiry is underway to try and find out whether it was a sudden jolt that made the passengers lose their grips and fall on to the tracks on the first day of the week.
The railways is now considering to have automatic door closure facilities on all EMU rakes being manufactured for the Mumbai suburban system. The rakes in service will also be renovated to have this facility, to prevent people from hanging out.
A section of officials, however, say that this will not be effective. All trains will just get delayed as the doors will not be able to close at stations due to the passenger load, they said.
