Elphinstone Road Stampede: Western Railway Report Blames “Rains” and Rumours, Absolves Authorities?

Two weeks after deadly stampede struck elphinstone road-parel foot-over bridge in mumbai, the western railway in its file has pinned the blame on rumours and rains for the tragedy, ruling out the issue of poor infrastructure or negligence on a part of the railways body of workers.

Twenty-3 lives had been lost on 29 september due to the tragic incident that happened on the slim bridge that connects elphinstone road station on the western railway with parel station on the central railway.

After collecting statements from nearly 30 survivors, a excessive-degree western railway committee absolved the railways authorities. “the committee determined that the cause of the incident had been rumours and rain. the confusion between ‘phool’ and ‘PUL’ resulted in the chaos. no one was accountable for it,” western railway chief public family members officer Ravinder bhakar become quoted as pronouncing by mumbai replicate.

The Record, but, makes several guidelines as a way to prevent similar incidents in destiny. those consist of installation of additional CCTV, removal of all encroachments, and a ban on heavy bags at some point of peak hours. the file, which changed into compiled with the aid of 5 senior railways officials, blamed rain and now not the bad infrastructure in and across the stations.

The Record additionally cautioned improving the readability (resolution) of CCTV cameras and that the footage must be reachable to the station GRASP, relocation of the price tag reserving office on the elphinstone street station and deployment of railway protection pressure (RPF) during height hours.

The committee additionally proposed utilisation of the booking workplace space to upgrade the foot-over bridge and utilization of wireless handsets a number of the authorities for better communique. the file additionally said that if the india meteorological department (IMD) predicts heavy rainfall and the brihanmumbai municipal business enterprise (bmc) also warn about the same, the station should announce the replace to avoid chaos.

“We can observe all the tips by using committee and put in force most of the suggestions as early as possible,” bhakar instructed firstpost.

One of the survivors had in advance informed the rpf that it was a flower vendor’s ‘phool gir gaya’ (flowers have fallen) cry which become misinterpreted through the commuters as ‘pul gir gaya’ (the bridge has collapsed).

In The Meantime, protecting the western railway, the cpro stated that a new bridge has been sanctioned. “it is now not like we neglected warnings earlier than the incident,” the cpro said. acknowledging the dearth of trained body of workers to deal with hard situations like the 29 september incident, bhakar said, “the survivors who spoke to us said that the rumour was created all of a unexpected. the people had been unprepared for the rains. in seven to 8 minutes, this rumour turned the state of affairs right into a stampede.

He said: “The infrastructure is inadequate. there are many motives. the paintings is not happening at the fee it need to. the purpose is that we get approximately and a half of hours block to paintings.”
he praised the government’ circulate to deliver foot-over bridges underneath the safety class from the sooner ‘passenger amenity’ category and showed that getting approvals to improve the foot-over bridge might, for this reason, come to be less complicated.

Hours after the tragedy, the western railway had released a announcement saying that the rains had been “exceptional” and that commuters on the station “had been caught unaware”. western railway maintained its stand within the current record as well announcing, railway commuters, ‘unprepared for the rains’, amassed on the elphinstone-parel foot overbridge, the usage of the bridge’s roof to refuge themselves from the unexpected rain.

“There was no structural harm to the foot-over bridge which can be attributed to the stampede,” the release said, india these days reported. it stated that the bridge turned into five meters huge.

The Railways had additionally stated CCTV cameras could be mounted in all of the suburban trains in mumbai within 15 months, and eventually, across the USA.

The incident had caused railway minister piyush goyal to order a excessive-level inquiry. he additionally assured to widen foot-over bridges throughout the suburban railway machine. a 2016 comptroller and auditor preferred (CAG) document had especially highlighted the structural disorder inside the elphinstone street-parel foot-over bridge.

The Width of the bridge have been a problem raised through numerous commuters prior to the incident. “we had given a letter to the railway management six months ago with a request to do something to enhance the shoddy situation right here,” a commuter had informed pti.

Former Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had additionally released Rs 11.8 crore for building a brand new foot-over bridge inside the area after the Shiv Sena drew his interest to the Matter. however, the challenge by no means took off and its modern-day repute is a Thriller.