Commuters prepare to catch a train during rush hour at a suburban railway station in Mumbai. - AFP file
Mumbai - The Bombay high court has slammed the suburban railways for their failure to raise the height of platforms, despite several promises to the court over the past few years.
Published: Sat 2 Apr 2016, 12:00 AM
Last updated: Sat 2 Apr 2016, 12:38 PM
It is not just the millions of commuters travelling in Mumbai's suburban railways who find it frustrating to deal with the railway bureaucracy. Even the courts are flummoxed with the lack of response from the authorities.
The Bombay high court has slammed the suburban railways for their failure to raise the height of platforms, despite several promises to the court over the past few years. The result is that hundreds of passengers get killed or injured every month, falling into the wide gap between the trains and the platforms. Every year, about 3,500 passengers are killed and thousands more are maimed in railway accidents (falling between the train and the platform, falling off moving trains, or knocked off while crossing tracks) on Mumbai's suburban corridors.
Killer track> Hundreds of passengers get killed or injured every month, falling into the wide gap between the trains and the platforms.
> Every year, about 3,500 passengers are killed and thousands more are maimed in railway accidents on Mumbai's suburban corridors.
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"In which part of the world does it happen that there is a wide gap between the platform and the train and people are suffering because of it?" a division bench of the court asked the railways.
The Bombay high court was taking up writ petitions filed by several activists relating to growing accidents on the suburban lines. The court had suo-moto also taken up a case after newspapers reported how a 16-year-old girl lost her forearms after falling between the platforms and a train's footboard in Ghatkopar in January 2014.
Western Railway informed the court that it had raised the height of 64 platforms, out of a total of 144 that needed to be raised. "You don't need a dozen orders from the court to increase height of platforms," said the judges. "This is so basic that you should have done it 10 years ago."
Both the Central and Western Railways had been ordered by the court in December 2014 to raise platform heights in Mumbai. The railways wanted time till March 2017, but the court ordered them to complete the work by March 2015. But even after a year, they have failed miserably in raising platform heights.
This time, the court asked the general managers of the two railways to file personal affidavits setting deadlines. It also told them they would be hauled up for contempt of court if the work was not executed within the deadline.
The Bombay high court was also critical of the railways for the failure to ensure that stations in Navi Mumbai were disabled-friendly. The railways had promised to make stations disabled-friendly about two years ago, but have been blaming Cidco, the Maharashtra government agency for the development of the satellite city, for the delays.
news@khaleejtimes.com
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