Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 27: At least nine people were injured, two of them critically, in a virtual stampede at the Bandra terminus railway station in Mumbai on Sunday morning when a huge rush of people rushed to board the unreserved compartments of a passenger train going to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.
The railway police said the weekly 22921 Bandra-Gorakhpur Express was being brought to the platform number 1 from the yard with the doors of the coaches locked from inside when the crowd rushed to board the train and some of the people in the queue fell down on the platform or in between two coaches and trampled by others
All the injured persons were rushed to a hospital where they are receiving treatment. The conditions of two of the injured were stated to be critical while others were stable, hospital sources said.
A statement issued by the railways said, “The empty Antyodaya Express, having all 22 general class coaches, was being backed on platform no.1” at around 2.45 am when the incident occurred.” Things got out of hand when passengers, who had queued up while waiting for the train, tried to board it when it was taken on the platform from the yard with doors of the coaches locked from inside.
In the attempt to board the train, some people fell on the platform when they came in between two coaches. “Ideally, doors of the coaches are opened after the train makes a halt at the platform and passengers then board in a queue,” railway sources said, but in this case the impatient passengers rushed all at a time breaking the queue. Prima facie, the people fell on the platform after colliding with the coaches or in the space between two coaches, the sources said.
The visuals from the Bandra Station showed a huge rush of people with several lying on the floor and benches with injuries. The Railway Police and other passengers were seen helping the injured people onto stretchers. Another Visual showed blood on the floor and injured being taken on stretchers by Railway Police personnel and other passengers.
A video showed a Railway cop taking an injured passenger on his shoulder. Another video showed two men lying on the floor with blood stains on their clothes. Two people came running with a stretcher and took the man out. There were over 50 police personnel present at Platform 1 to manage the crowd.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said the stampede broke out in the wake of the festive rush ahead of Diwali. A huge crowd of passengers rushed to board the train leading to a stampede, they said.
“Today morning, at Bandra Terminus, when 22921 Bandra-Gorakhpur Antyodaya Express, whose departure time is 5.15 am, was taken to the platform from the yard at 2.44 am, some passengers tried to board the train while it was still moving,” said Western Railway CPRO Vineet Abhishek.
Those injured have been identified as Shabhir Abdul Rehman (40), Parmeshwar Sukhdar Gupta (28), Ravindra Harihar Chuma (30), Ramsevak Ravindra Prasad Prajapati (29), Sanjay Tilakram Kangay (27), Divyanshu Yogendra Yadav (18), Mohammad Shareef Shaikh (25), Indrajith Sahani (19) and Noor Mohammad Shaikh (18), the official said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut targeted Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw over the stampede claiming he was too busy with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet bullet train project while passengers in Mumbai were being ignored. Raut said, “Mumbai city gives maximum revenue to the Union government. Compared to it, we hardly get any facilities here for passengers.” “The railway minister is too involved with the bullet train project and people are left to die because of the poor infrastructure as the railway minister is disconnected with their problems,” he claimed.
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, aimed at significantly reducing the travel time between the two cities, is currently under implementation.
Another Shiv Sena (UBT) leader questioned the competence of the railway minister. Taking to X, party leader and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya said the incident reflected how “incapable” the minister was. “Wish the reel minister was a rail minister for once. The incident at Bandra only reflects how incapable the current Railways Minister is. The BJP has made Ashwini Vaishnaw ji a Prabhari for BJP Maharashtra for elections, but every week there are some incidents and accidents that occur with the railways. Such a shame that our country has been forced under such incapable ministers,” he said.