23 people lost their lives on 28th September 2017 for reasons that would flabbergast any rational thinking person. Recounting the horror and being an eye witness to the tragedy, I can safely say that Mumbai was extremely lucky to have only 23 casualties. The number could have been much higher if not for the alert RPF officials and the alert Mumbaikars who incessantly helped in managing the disaster to a great extent.
Working in one of the organisations set up in the same locality of Lower Parel, I too take the same bridge every working day, and with each passing year the number of corporate organisations operating through Lower Parel has only increased. And with increasing corporate offices and restaurants, the demand for labour too has increased drastically.
Considering that there are thousands of people who use these railway bridges every day for their daily commute, it was the need of the hour for these bridges to be widened to meet this growing need. As for me, I am thankful to god to have survived the horror and be alive to tell you the tale of my horrible experience. Rumours about a part of the bridge falling off or that of a short circuit happening did rounds on the social media, but it was the untimely rains which were the actual reason for this mishap.
The incident as it is:
Commuters as usual were passing by the foot over bridge to reach their respective offices, when it suddenly started raining heavily. Since it was the end of September, most the commuters did not have their umbrellas handy with them causing them to take shade inside the bridge itself. While the people inside the bridge stood there waiting for the rains to stop, the people outside rushed inside causing commotion and panic amongst people already inside. The sudden influx of people coming from outside and the people (like me) unknowingly coming towards the Elphinstone was so much that it resulted in the people stranded getting crammed and suffocated. The incident would not have occurred, had the requisite infrastructure been in place, but as is visible and evident, in spite of innumerable requests, absolutely nothing was done to remedy the existing condition of the foot overbridges.
Lack of infrastructure:
While the human traffic using the bridges on Parel and Elphinstone (Prabhadevi) railway station multiplied every year, the infrastructure remained the same as it was 30 years back. On a normal weekday, it takes round about 10-50 minutes for a commuter to cross over from one side to another, which in the general sense would not have taken more than 2 minutes.
The bridges which stand in dilapidated condition have demanded renovation for as long as I can remember, but all the governments which have come and gone and the one ruling the state have given other things priority over this.
Commuters had complained to the government and the railway authorities on various counts but it was this disaster which awoke these bureaucrats. A tender was floated for an additional foot overbridge hours after the tragedy struck Mumbai, which clearly shows only such tragedies can wake them from their deep slumber[1]. The issue at hand was also raised by Sachin Tendulkar in 2016 in the Rajya Sabha[2], but in spite of assurances the same was never done.
Considering that the present government is a lot more responsive and responsible of their duties, we as citizens are hopeful that this massacre of innocent lives would be taken as a lesson for appropriate steps to penalise the officials responsible be taken and also have the problem at hand rectified at Parel/Elphinstone, and at other railway stations like curry road, Masjid Bandar, Kurla etc., which are currently sitting at the edge, waiting for a similar disaster to happen any moment.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal who had held a high level meeting with the senior officials of the railway to initiate a probe into the incident and also for remediation of the existing issue of the foot overbridge, would have to note that simply remediation by the railway would not be enough, considering that there is absolutely no infrastructure available otherwise. The drainage/ sewage connections, traffic mobility and open space requirement in Lower Parel area also in shambles.
Sky scrapers after sky scrapers have been built over lands which previously housed mills, thereby multiplying the human traffic on the same plot of land by 100 times, but the infrastructure to house the increased traffic still remains the same as it was 30 years back.
Solution: The only permanent solution to this would be to develop smart cities around the country as soon as possible which would facilitate businesses to shift their bases and eventually also help Mumbai de-congest.
Decongesting Mumbai would be key to the progress of other parts of the country and also for the survival of Mumbai, which as of today seems to be heading towards Armageddon, for the very same reasons due to which those 23 innocents lost their lives – LACK OF SPACE AND INFRASTRUCTURE.
Jai Hind.
[1] http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/after-elphinstone-stampede-tender-floated-for-additional-foot-overbridge-117092901003_1.html
[2] http://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/sachin-tendulkar-asked-for-foot-overbridges-in-2016-elphinstone-never-got-one/story-Ioo94LuBWuoEUW3M2wuABP.html