After 23 killed in Elphinstone stampede, multi-agency teams to begin railway stations inspection today

Around 150 officials across various government agencies will decide on an ideal 'safe' railway station in the next seven to 10 days. Starting from Tuesday, at least nine to 10 teams comprising around seven officials representing different departments and organisations will inspect all the railway stations on the Central and Western Railways line.

On September 30, following the tragic stampede on a narrow foot-overbridge (FOB) at Elphinstone Road station, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had announced that multi-agency teams would be formulated, who would inspect railway stations in detail.

Sources said that on Monday, these teams conducted a dry run and some stations were checked. "These teams will visit the railway stations during morning and evening peak hours," said a senior railway official on condition of anonymity.

There are 136 railway stations on the Mumbai Suburban system, but these teams will inspect those on the Churchgate-Virar section of WR, and CSMT-Panvel, CSMT-Kalyan sections of CR, which bear the major load of commuters. The Kalyan-Karjat/Kasara route is also heavily crowded, but authorities will inspect selective stations here, where the commuter load is high.

Sources said that there are four members from railways in each team, one each from commercial, engineering, Railway Police Force and construction, and the other members are from the Mumbai Police, Government Railway Police, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The teams will also include members from the respective corporations of Vasai Virar, Mira Bhayander, Kalyan Dombivali and Navi Mumbai in case of stations beyond Mumbai limits.

There will be a videographer accompanying each team, who would document every location of a railway station. The teams will study all the FOBs, entry and exit points, ticket booking counters, platforms and food stalls where commuters are seen. The video and photo evidence will be used to identify the issues at each location of a station and will be used to come up with solutions accordingly.

The officials will try to identify the problem areas or places where there are disturbances in smooth movement and engineering issues in terms of width and breadth. This process is expected to go on for a week or 10 days, after which a report will be submitted. In the last week of October, the first monthly meeting of the different government agencies will be chaired by state Education Minister Vinod Tawde.

Senior railway officials said that they are planning to get a comprehensive report ready in time to be presented at this meeting. Once the report is submitted, the heads of departments from different agencies will come forward and chalk out solutions to the problems documented by these teams.