A terrible tragedy occurred at the Elphinstone Station foot over bridge on Friday morning at around 10.30 am on 29th September 2017 in Mumbai - ironically it was Durga Naumi Day.
Lakhs of people cross this foot over bridge at all times of the day more so during office hours - it connects Parel and Elphinstone Road railway stations, many cross over to change suburban trains - who knew they would cross tracks altogether and be crushed in a mad stampede on the stairways leading and exiting to this foot over bridge.
It had rained that fateful morning and the entrance and exit leading up to the stairways was all full with dirty rain water which had gathered with no means to properly drain it out. People had to get on with their lives, jobs, errands, festive shopping all sorts of things were to be completed. Suddenly there was commotion on the stairways which was already full to capacity and somebody slipped. Coupled to that was a rumor that the over bridge was shaking and could collapse.
Soon enough people were trying to exit the bridge as soon as possible which lead to old people, women and children falling down only to be suffocated or trampled upon. It was a horrible sight which shouldn't ever be repeated. People in their hurry to save themselves put pressure on those in front who couldn't bear the onslaught and were grievously injured or paid with their lives.
Surprisingly there were no police present to control the crowd nor was there any person from any Govt. department to try and evacuate the stumbling people. It was much after the tragedy had already occurred that police arrived but by then it was too late and people had already succumbed to death.
22 people perished in this disaster and countless many were injured with various degrees of injuries on their bodies.
This disaster could have easily been averted had pleas to build a second foot over bridge alongside the present one been accepted and work started in right earnest. Yet nothing was done by the then Railway Minister who had agreed in principle to sanction a wider bridge in Feb 2016 yet for reasons best known to all of them the work never started, and innocent people paid with their lives.
It has been noticed that hawkers and peddlers of petty goods invade this over bridge and make the passage of people even more difficult. Beggars add to this commotion. One may ask where was the law enforcement agencies in such a scenario? The answers are not far to seek. Most of them were bribed to stay away by these very people who lead to the over crowding.
Had the concerned people woken up in time and started construction of the better and wide over bridge this could have been avoided. The stairways are also small and slippery. This could be replaced with an enclosed escalator with proper maintenance as in metro stations and the problem could never have occurred.
Yet in India things just don't move until there is a calamity or people die in some major incident such as this one. Sad but true. This is not the only one, there are several other pressure points where over bridges need to be widened or rebuilt - people cross over during rush hours and incidents such as these are just waiting to happen.
The powers that be, have to be quick in their decision making and implement decisions where safety and survival of people are concerned.
Take this as a wake up call and please start implementing things on the ground. Believe me the peoples lives are important and can't be taken so lightly. They will in turn bless you.
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