Mumbai stampede at Elphinstone station: Isro to help improve railway safety

Today, at least 22 people died in a stampede at Mumbai's Elphinstone railway station

Indian Railways is working with the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) to devise safety mechanisms to make travel by trains more safer, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday, a day before Mumbai stampede.

The minister said he met Isro Chairman A S Kiran Kumar a few days ago. Railways and RailTel are working together to explore use of space technology for safety, he added.

"Safety is a very pressing and urgent need. The discussion which we had was very eye-opening in some sense for me, but also very exciting in terms of possibilities that open for engaging with space technologies that Isro has developed, helping in bringing safer travel to Indian Railways," Goyal said at the India Mobile Congress.

Talking about technology, Goyal said the railways has been an early adopter of computers which could have been also expanded for various operational processes like safety.

People look on at the site of a stampede that broke out on the Elphinstone Railway Station bridge in Mumbai. Photo: PTI

He said modern technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are going to change the world and India has an opportunity to look at what is the latest across the world and bring it to the country.

"I have asked railtel to look at a programme to connect thousands of railway stations with wi-fi... we can actually provide also the villages around railway stations with wi-fi connectivity and get rural India also connected with new age technology. Let's give them same kind of opportunity that our children in cities are enjoying," Goyal said.

The minister said that round the clock access of connectivity and electricity is dream of billions of Indians and the government is making efforts to achieve it.

Mumbai stampede: Piyush Goyal orders high-level probe

A high-level enquiry headed by the Chief Safety Officer of Western Railways has been ordered on Friday in Mumbai stampede which claimed 22 lives.

At least 22 people died and more than 30 were seriously injured on Friday in a stampede at Mumbai's Elphinstone railway station.

After the accident, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal reached Mumbai to take stock of the situation.

Later, he told ANI, "I have ordered a high level enquiry headed by the Chief Safety Officer of Western Railways. The team will inquire about the matter and ascertain the cause of the incident."

Police look on at the site of a stampede that broke out on the Elphinstone Railway Station bridge in Mumbai. Photo: PTI