For Families Of 22 Killed In Elphinstone, Death Is Tragedy But For Railways It’ll Become Statistics Tomorrow

Priyanka Pasalkar, was in her early twenties, and pride of not just her parents but the entire BMC workers colony in Kurla.

“She was the brightest among all. She was working in an IT company. I can’t believe that she is no more. We got to know from Whatsapp photos and we all rushed here,” says Ujjawala Pardhe, her neighbour. Priyanka, who was a much-loved sister of two brothers and doting parents, was on her way from Kurla to Elphinstone Road, when she got stuck in the stampede that killed 23 and injured 55 on Friday morning.

The injured and the deceased were brought to KEM Hospital, Parel and within hours the area was flooded with relatives and friends of the victims. For some reason, there were two large banners with photos of the victims displayed right at the entrance of the hospital and the mortuary gate. While some said it was for the relatives to identify, the authorities took it down by evening, presumably after all had been identified.

The narrow foot over bridge is a trademark at all smaller stations on the suburban railway network – be it Parel, Matunga, Mahim, Currey Road, Chinchpokli, Mahalaxmi and so many more. These stations, built decades ago, catered to smaller populations and only slow trains. The only difference is that over the past 10 years stations surrounding the mill district in central Mumbai have seen manifold increase in passenger population, even as the mills got converted to corporate offices. For example, just outside Elphinstone Road station, and precisely outside the bridge on which people choked to death, there are at least four to five major office spaces such as Indiabulls Finance Centre, which would have thousands of employees coming in between 9:30 am to 10:30 am.

One such employee was Chandan Singh from Madhya Pradesh, who worked as an accountant at Kandivali but had come to the company headquarters in the nearby Indiabulls Tower. His uncle Subhash Singh came to identify his body after his parents, based in Satana, saw the news on television and were unable to reach him on his mobile. “I saw the picture on the banner outside. His parents have now left from their home to come here. He has a wife and a two-year-old son. He is the only earning member of the family,” says Subhash.

Victims ranged from those who lived in nearby areas to those who came to India’s financial capital from far and wide. For example, Ankush Jaiswar, 35, lived just five minutes away from the station but worked at Navi Mumbai. Even as hundreds of them jostled on the foot over bridge, none would have realised the end that awaited them, simply because this is how it is every day.

“He used to go every day like so many others. It is always crowded. There is always a rush,” says one of Ankush’s friends as they wait for the post mortem procedures to be completed. Social media and whatsapp was full of messages about how many times commuter organisations have complained about these precarious locations and have tagged and formally informed the authorities including fomer minister Suresh Prabhu and Goel.

Today, after KEM Hospital confirmed deaths of 22, several ministers including Goel, visited the hospital and met the injured. The constant VIP movement kept the police busy, who diligently refused entry to outsiders, including media persons, in the general wards. Most politicians promised enquiry. Opposition demanded that the authorities be tried for culpable homicide. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has announced an in-depth enquiry and declared medical assistance to all injured and Rs 5 lakh as compensation to victims.

"A complete safety and capacity audit of all the FOBs across the suburban train network will be conducted. Normally, it takes 20 days to come out with the report (of any incident), but for the auditing purpose of all the FOBs, we need to send technical experts and I guess that within 20 days we will have the audit reports of all the FOBs of the suburban trains. I have come to know that the official procedure to widen the ill-fated bridge was underway. Budget was sanctioned only last year and the tendering process was underway, but unfortunately, this most tragic incident unfolded,” PTI reported Goyal as saying.

However, not many would believe in any of the upgradation promises. Everyone around KEM Hospital and Elphinstone road station was asking only one question, a rhetorical one. If this was known, why was nothing done? Several media reports published at least four years ago, talks about almost doubling of passenger traffic at these stations. “According to Central Railway statistics, the Currey Road station saw around 1.4 crore passengers in 2012-13. In 2007, the figure was 8 million,” says a report in DNA in 2013. “Elphinstone station showed an increase of 114.45% in passengers carrying season tickets and 69.16% increase in the total number of passengers using Elphinstone between 2004 and 2012.”

“The government is following a one-point agenda of changing names of places (Elphinstone was recently named Prabhadevi) and making big announcements. The common man is paying price for the same. If they had focused on solving the problems of the station than renaming it, so many people would not have died. Rather than bringing a bullet train for handful of rich people, it is important to give priority to safety of lakhs of ordinary citizens of Mumbai,” said opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil.

However, none of this makes sense to the families of Sumalata Shetty and Sujata Alva, residents of Kanjurmarg, another tiny station on central railway, who had gone for flower-shopping at Parel for Durga Puja. “They were very active and were enthusiastic about decorating the Puja. We have community celebrations. They were very close friends. We don’t know how this happened,” says one of the friends.

Unfortunately, the authorities know exactly how this happened and what could have prevented it but the in-depth enquiry is what the city will wait for.

At 6:30 pm, when the return rush hour had started, there was no evidence of death on the bridge or on the station. Except that commuters kept looking at it while entering the station, going over how it would have happened and narrating instances of how each of them was in a similar situation at some point or the other. And was lucky to have escaped.