Eight die every day on Mumbai Local tracks: RTI

By NewsGram Staff-Writer

Mumbai: 29,278 people have died during the last 10 years while traveling on Mumbai Local trains, as the suburban train service is popularly called, revealed an RTI inquiry.

Mumbai Local, the suburban train network that runs across Mumbai connecting its various localities, is the lifeline of the city. According to Wikipedia, it carries more than 7.5 million commuters daily.

But, according to the information revealed by the Government Railway Police to activist Anis Khan, under the RTI law, an average of 8 people had died every day for the past 10 years.

Out of the 29,278 deaths, 6,989 people died after falling off the trains. Another 18,733 people fell off the trains, but survived, taking the total count of people who fell off the trains to 25,722.

Pointing out the failure of the railway administration in preventing these deaths, Khan said: "The basic reason why people are dying like animals is that railway officers have entirely failed to comprehend the hardships of the commuters and the basic reason behind this (inability to comprehend the problems) is that officers never travel in local trains."

(With inputs from Times of India)