Mumbai's lifeline turns fatal

In April 1853, Mumbai's first train made its humble beginning as it chugged between Boribundar and Tanna. Over the century, Mumbai's suburban railway system evolved into a lifeline for commuters in the metropolitan city. However, the Railway's apathy in carrying out much needed upgrades and maintenance has led to a crumbling infrastructure that deteriorates with each passing decade, snuffing out lives of Mumbaikars. The over 76 lakh daily commuters on the suburban system have a battle on their hands each day, as the Railways struggles to expand its network in Mumbai and the city's extended metropolitan region.

An emergency meeting on September 30, a day after the tragic stampede at Elphinstone Road station that claimed 23 lives, called by Union Rail Minister Piyush Goyal focused on the dire need for extensive input into the city's suburban rail system. In the mishap's wake, authorities have now been forced to swing into action in an effort to clean up the mess.

DNA does a deep dive into analysing the possible reasons that are leading to the systematic collapse of this critical mode of transport in the nation's financial capital.

Trains that can't keep up with commuters

As if to reiterate the fact that Mumbai's suburban rail system is the city's lifeline, in the last 10 years, the number of daily train services operated by Central (CR) and Western Railways (WR) has increased by 125 per cent.

It has proven to be a major challenge for the Railways to ferry daily commuters whose numbers have gone up by 112 per cent during the same period. This leaves little space inside trains as people travel to and from work cramped like cattle.

In 2007-08 there were 67.82 lakh people travelling everyday which went up to 76.22 lakh daily commuters until September this year.

Despite the railways augmenting from 9-car to 12-car on Main and Harbour lines, it hasn't come as respite from the overcrowding inside coaches. The WR authorities, with little capacity to augment on existing lines, have been struggling more than the CR.

Inside a general compartment, the railway authorities claim that the space has been augmented to 21 persons per sq meter from the earlier 16 persons per sq meter. Ideally this means that the capacity of each compartment of a 12-car train has risen from 450 per coach to 593 per coach. At the start of the decade, in 2009-10 the WR were operating 1,210 services which has increased to 1,355 services until September this year. In the same period, the CR's daily services have increased from 1,412 to 1,660.

"In the new timetable, we have used the fifth line between Andheri and Virar so that more services can be put into service. There is little scope of curtailing the headway that stands at four minutes," said a senior WR official.

Surprisingly both CR and WR have seen a fall in daily commuters after 2014-15 that stood at 75.58 lakh to 74.14 lakh in 2015-16.

It took nine years for both CR and WR authorities to augment by 500 services. Such is the case despite more and better rakes being bought under phase 1 and 2 of Mumbai Urban Transport Projects. Both the railways together are operating five 15-car trains – of which four are operated by WR – in a bid to supplement capacity by 33 per cent. Even the Railway minister Piyush Goyal had demanded more 15-car trains though certain sections of his own department believe that such a move would kill the rail schedule.

Passing the buck between agencies

The coordination between various agencies like Central and Western Railways, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Government Railway Police, Urban Development Department and other departments of the state government form the cogs of a wheel that never runs smoothly as each of these agencies have their own unresolved issues.

The latest example was in the aftermath of the stampede at Elphinstone Road station. The WR is unable to get BMC land for construction of a new FOB. This, despite the fact that it has been a year since the erstwhile Railway minister Suresh Prabhu gave his clearance for a new bridge.

The bureaucrats heading these agencies rarely accommodate projects implemented by other organisations. This is one of the most significant reasons behind inordinate delays of multi-crore projects which lead to loss of public money. In 2014-15, a joint fortnightly meeting was to be held between various agencies. However, within a few weeks, inter-agency issues persisted.

On September 30, railway minister Piyush Goyal highlighted this shortcoming and its repercussions. According to sources, at the meeting Goyal questioned the heads of BMC and Railways for a solution to waterlogging on rail tracks. Both agencies brought forward flaws like narrow uncleaned culverts and garbage thrown on tracks. Railway officials said that Goyal directed both organisations to resolve the situation before next year's monsoon. The organisations have now started working on identifying problematic spots.

Vacating illegal homes, rehabilitating people and acquiring land for rail projects is the toughest task for state agencies as they are busy identifying the owners of these lands which are encroached upon. For instance, after the land slide on Parsik Hill in 2015, which tumbled down on rail lines, the next few days passed in deciding whether the Thane Municipal Corporation or Forest Department owned the land. In another case, an entire slum pocket of Behrampada in Bandra east belongs to the Railways but due to inter-agency apathy and lack of political will, demolition proves futile.

Railway tracks that kill

Overcrowded coaches, poor infrastructure at stations and red tapeism is the concoction that leads to deaths on the railway tracks. On one hand we call the suburban railway system the city's lifeline but unfortunately at least 8 to 10 people die on the rail tracks of Mumbai everyday. One of the biggest reasons is trespassing which contributes over 65 per cent of the deaths.

"The teams that are scrutinising the railway stations over various safety parameters are also checking points where trespassing is heavy," said a railway official. Most of these happen near slum pockets that are close to the railway lines. On the Western Railway, these are areas like Mahim, Bandra, Santacruz, Jogeshwari, Malad, and Virar while on Central Railway, Kurla, Govandi, Mankhurd, Diva and Wadala have slums and buildings close to the rail lines.

The solution to this problem requires multiple agencies. In such cases, the BMC is expected to demolish illegal slums, MMRDA is expected to rehabilitate the people and then hand over the land to the railways. Political parties are equally responsible for disallowing government machinery from doing their work as many of these slums are also vote banks.

Then is the overcrowding inside trains which usually happens during morning and evening peak hours. In the past, there have been cases in which people have fallen off running trains while hanging dangerously on crowded foot-boards and at times even hitting the pole. Railway officials claim that the number of deaths due to overcrowding has reduced after upgrading the trains to 12-car.

In 2012, there were 3,543 deaths; in 2016, 3,208 people died on the tracks; and the number of deaths on rail premises up to September this year stands at 2,221. The year-on-year figures show that the number of deaths on tracks are falling however the number of people injured remains more or less stagnant. In 2012, at least 3,707 people were injured, which came down to 3,451 in 2016 and until now 2,519 commuters have been injured.

In 2017, the GRP station at Kalyan station has registered the maximum deaths with 286 cases followed by Kurla (248), Thane (240), Dombivli (124), Wadala (116), CST (100), Panvel (55) on the CR while on the WR, Borivli saw 222 registered cases of death followed by Vasai (169), Mumbai Central (112), Dadar (87), Andheri (84), Bandra (79) and Churchgate (33).

Crumbling infrastructure

Many stations in Mumbai's suburban areas have been constructed during the British era and feature old stone and metal framed foot (FOBs) and road-overbridges. The stone-walled barracks (turned into offices now), arched roofs, pillars, benches and clocks still have GIPR (Great Indian Peninsular Railway) inscribed all over them. The tragic incident at Elphinstone Road station was a cruel reminder of the crumbling infrastructure that shouts for urgent repairs.

Staircases of these old FOBs are barely two meters wide while the pathways are supported by rusty railings, most of which lead to commercial offices and skyscrapers. People are forced to push and nudge fellow commuters while climbing the staircases on FOBs on their way to narrow and crowded platforms and pathways. And during the annual monsoon, the situation only worsens.

"We have constructed 20 FOBs and nearly 15 escalators in last three years," said an official from Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation, the planning agency for the metropolis. These are apart from those built by WR and CR authorities. The new ones are up to 12 meters wide but their staircases continue to be narrow.

Although the condition of a few stations in the city has improved in recent years with better inter-connectivity, FOBs and waste bins; spitting and garbage thrown on railway premises continues to be a problem. Other components like leaky and incomplete roofs, broken tiles on platforms and staircases make stations wholly inconvenient to daily commuters.

The quality of rakes, its speeds and seats have improved after the Railways procured newer ones under MUTP-1 and 2. However, the maintenance of rakes, tracks, overhead wires and signals continues to be an issue resulting in constant failures, frequent derailments, rail fractures, unit failures and OHE cables snapping.

Over the past few months there have been several derailments across Indian Railways which proves the apathy runs across the national system. The slow pace of improvement works namely addition of tracks and rail lines worsens the situation. Even passenger amenities like ATVMs have become a joke with many not functioning and cash-coin-vending machines more or less out of operation which forces people to wait in serpentine queues for their tickets. In the meantime, the MUTP phases have witnessed escalation of crores of rupees of public money since 2006.

NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT

Despite the railways augmenting from 9-car to 12-car on Main and Harbour lines, which increased the capacity of each compartment in a 12-car train from 450 per coach to 593 per coach, it hasn’t come as a respite from the overcrowding inside coaches as the number of daily commuters has steadily risen over the years

OLD AND OVERLOADED

Several stations in suburban areas have been constructed during the British era and feature old stone and metal framed FOBs and road-overbridges. The stone-walled barracks, arched roofs, pillars, benches and clocks still have Great Indian Peninsular Railway inscribed on them. Staircases of most these old FOBs are barely two meters wide, forcing commuters to push each other during peak hours, while the pathways are supported by rusty railings.

WHO IS TAKING OWNERSHIP?

After the land slide on Parsik Hill in 2015, which tumbled down on rail lines, the next few days passed in deciding whether the Thane Municipal Corporation or Forest Department owned the land. In another case, an entire slum pocket of Behrampada in Bandra east belongs to the Railways but due to inter-agency apathy and lack of political will, demolition proves futile.