The Mumbai MP has sought urgent intervention of the railway minister to reduce the gap between platforms and trains and also made available ambulances at all suburban railway stations
Milind Deora, union minister of state for Communications, IT & Shipping, and member of Parliament (MP) from Mumbai South constituency has taken up the suburban rail commuters' issues with the railway minister. This follows a memorandum from Moneylife Foundation and Samir Zaveri Railway Helpline on behalf of Mumbaikars to the MP urging his urgent intervention in stopping deaths on Mumbai rail tracks due to the wide gap between platforms and trains.
Deora, in a letter written to Mallikarjun Kharge has requested the railway minister to initiate strong measures to ensure passenger travel safety in Mumbai. He urged the minister to take following steps to prevent rail accidents like the recent one where one young girl lost both her arms after falling through the wide gap between platform and local train at Ghatkopar station in Mumbai.
1. An ambulance should be made readily available at all stations along with first-aid kits so that the injured persons can be attended to immediately and rushed to nearby hospital, if needed.
2. Bridging the gap between the platform and the train should be expedited.
3. Emergency medical rooms should be made available at all suburban stations to treat injured persons, as ordered by the Bombay High Court.
4. In case of emergencies and accidents, there should be a mechanism in place where primacy is given to saving lives of accident victims by providing them necessary medical attention without delay. It has been observed that the officials tend to give more attention to paper work than saving the precious life.
Moneylife Foundation , Samir Zaveri Railway Helpline as well as Coalition of Safe Rail Travel have been pushing for the raising of platforms for over a year. Samir Zaveri has taken up all these issues for several years now. He has even got the Courts to issue orders to Railway officials on these issues, however so far there is not much response from them.
Adv Bapoo Malcolm, who is a part of Moneylife group, managed to get the railway authorities to raise platform height at Grant Road station on a priority basis by filing a complaint and following it up. RTI activist Gaurang Damani, has successfully tried to close the railway track with a boundary wall with the help of certain efficient rail officials.
Here are more specific articles from DNA newspaper on the wide gap between train and platforms across Mumbai suburban network. 1. Mumbai: Hop on to lifeline, with care http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-mumbai-hop-on-to-lifeline-with-care-1946601 and 2. Mumbai local: Central Railway platforms provide height of horror http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-mumbai-local-cental-railway-platforms-provide-height-of-horror-1947035
Here is the memorandum sent by Moneylife Foundation and Samir Zaveri Railway Helpline to Milind Deora…
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Moreover, it takes ages for the Railways to do any major work to ease traffic on suburban routes. Though Navi Mumbai was supposed to be developed by CIDCO in the 1980s-90s to decongest Mumbai, the builders' lobby successfully scuttled that long-term alternative for their own vested interests. Not sure why only Harbour line doesn't have fast trains like the Western and Central Lines do. The new International Airport in Panvel, when it becomes operational, will likely move many businesses to that part of Navi Mumbai and put greater strain on the already constrained Harbour Line. Wish our politicians and town planners had the vision to cater to future population explosion, not just current demands.