Little safety on tracks: 6-8 people die on Mumbai suburban network daily

According to a CAG report, during the five years ending December 2014, Mumbai accounted for more than half the 33,445 deaths in suburban sections across the country

On a day when Railways Minister Piyush Goyal was supposed to inaugurate 100 new services to reduce the rush at peak traffic time in Mumbai's commuter rail network, the system saw one of its worst mishaps, claiming 22 lives so far.
 
Statistics reveal that at least six to eight people lose their lives on a daily basis in Mumbai's city and suburban rail network, of diverse causes. According to a report issued late last year by the Union comptroller and auditor general (CAG), from January 2010 to December 2014, of 33,445 deaths in suburban rail sections,  52.7 per cent or 17,638 were in the Mumbai section alone. This comes to almost 12 deaths per day in those five years.
 
According to media reports, about eight people were killed on a daily basis on Mumbai's tracks in 2016 — the official figure is 3,202 dead and 3,363 injured. On 2015, it was 3,304 dead and 3,349 injured. It has been less this year — till August, 1,590 people lost their lives. The major reasons for deaths are trespassing on the tracks and falling from running trains.
 
On Friday's mishap, an enquiry by the chief safety officer of Indian Railways has been ordered.
 
Mumbai city and suburban trains are also operating at a big loss, from Rs 12 crore in 2005-06 to a little above Rs 1,500 crore in 2015-16. To reduce congestion in the network, Goyal was to launch 100 new trains, taking the number in the network to 3,083. The event was cancelled.
 

"Mumbai suburban is close to my heart and I commuted on these trains for many years. Our plan is to double the number of services in the nest two years," Goyal told the media on Thursday.
 
According to another CAG report, suburban trains carried 22,250 million passengers of seven zonal railways, 72 per cent of total passengers carried during the period. The annual rise in passengers was 5.6 per cent during 2010-15, the revenue from this rising from Rs 1,851 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 2,493 crore in 2014-15.

CAG findings on suburban trains

• Increase in train services ranged between 2% and 122% 
• However, the number of passenger carried per rake was much higher than the capacity
• Increase in carrying capacity (per annum) ranged between 3% and 17%. However, increase in carrying capacity in Central Railways (CR) was about 6% and Western Railways (WR) was 5% 
• In CR & WR, 16 and 30 suburban services with 15-coach EMU rakes each run to ease overcrowding. However, comparison of the average number of passenger per rake with its carrying capacity indicate an average crush load of 2,510 passenger per rake 
• Analysis of data of death cases reported by the 
• Railway Police reveals that of 33,445 deaths, 4,885 occurred due to falling from trains