4 dead, 9 injured in Thane train mishap

Hindustan Times

4 days ago

Thane: Four people died and nine were injured, two of them critically, when two overcrowded suburban trains on the Central Railway (CR) network passed by each other on sharply-curved tracks near Mumbra railway station on Monday morning.
Eyewitnesses said the people hanging out of the crowded trains hit one another as the trains moved at high speed in opposite directions. The curvature narrowed the distance between the two sets of tracks. There is no official version as yet on the cause of the accident.
Sources said that the staff operating the two local trains have been working every day during the morning peak hours for the past few years. CR is treating this as an 'incident' and not an accident, so it hasn't formed any special committee to investigate, but relevant information is still being collected to identify the root cause, officials said.
Monday's tragedy once again highlighted the perilous nature of Mumbai local travel, among the world's most crowded suburban rail networks. According to Government Railway Police (GRP) statistics, at least seven people die while travelling on trains with high crushload.
CR's chief public relations officer, Swapnil Nila, confirmed that eight people fell off between Diva and Mumbra stations around 9.10 am on Monday. 'Emergency response teams, including ambulances and railway medical staff, were immediately dispatched to the site, and the injured passengers were swiftly transported to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital, Kalwa, and the Civil Hospital, Thane, for prompt medical attention. All possible medical assistance is being provided to the injured,' he said.
The victims were all men and office goers. The deceased were identified as Ketan Dilip Saroj, 23; Rahul Santosh Gupta, 27; Vicky Babasaheb Mukhyal, 34; and Mayur Shah, 44. 'The principal chief safety officer will conduct an inquiry into the incident. From the preliminary investigation, it was found that the passengers were travelling on the footboard [of the trains],' said Nila.
Of the four other commuters who fell off the trains, two—Shiva Gawali, 40, and Anil More, 51—are critical with severe head and leg injuries. They are being treated at Jupiter Hospital in Thane. Two others—Rehan Shaikh, 26, and Adesh Bhoir, 26—suffered fractured legs but are out of danger, officials said. Five passengers with minor injuries—Tushar Bhagat, 22; Manish Saroj, 26; Machindra Gotrane, 30; Sneha Konde, 21; and Priyanka Bhatia, 23—alighted at Thane station and were taken to the Thane Civil Hospital for treatment, officials said.
What happened
According to officials, the incident occurred in a 100-metre stretch near Mumbra station, when two suburban CR trains on the fast lines — Kasara-CSMT and CSMT-Karjat — were cruising at 75 kmph on a curve and crossed each other. Trains on CR's fast lines do not halt at Mumbra. While commuters posted videos on social media showing injured people lying on the tracks near Mumbra after falling off the trains, there is still no footage available showing how they fell.
A senior CR official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they are looking at all possibilities. 'The victims have bruises on their legs and hands. It is still unclear what hit them or the probable reason behind their falling off the train. Shoulder bags have also been found at the site, so we are looking at the possibility of people hanging by the footboard wearing bags brushing against commuters travelling in the train coming from the opposite direction.'
CR officials were seen measuring the distance between the two rail lines, as people have claimed that the two trains that crossed each other had touched. However, this is unlikely, said the senior CR official quoted earlier. 'There were scratches on the coaches. However, if the coaches had hit each other, at that speed, there would have been a derailment,' the official said.
CR is also looking at the possibility of the involvement of the so-called fatka gang, the official said. Members of the notorious gang target passengers standing on the footboard of local trains by attacking their hands with sticks, causing them to drop their phones. 'There is another allegation that there was an argument that led to a fight in one of the coaches, which led to the people falling off,' the official added.
Passengers who witnessed the incident recounted the horror, with some claiming they were saved from falling by other passengers. Deepak Shirsat, 23, who was in one of the trains, said, 'I boarded this CSMT-bound train at Shahad. After the Diva station, the footboard was overcrowded as passengers began pushing each other to make sure they get to alight at Thane. I was distracted on my phone, and suddenly the train tilted slightly. We held onto the handles, but in a flash, I saw two to three people fall off right in front of me. Someone behind grabbed me just in time. We tried to pull the emergency chain, but the train didn't stop.'
Rescue efforts were swift, led by the Thane Government Railway Police (GRP) and commuters. 'When we got off at Thane, we rushed back to Mumbra along with the railway police staff. We helped carry the injured passengers into a tempo rickshaw and took them to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa. I keep thinking — if it had been raining, maybe the doors would have been closed and these fellow commuters would have been safe,' added Shirsat.
'We have initiated a formal investigation into the incident,' said senior police inspector Ashwini Dusane from the Thane GRP. 'According to initial statements from passengers, the bags of commuters on two overcrowded trains collided and caused a push-and-pull situation near the curve. However, this is only preliminary information. A detailed inquiry is currently underway.'
Solution to overcrowding?
Monday's incident again highlighted the perennial problem of overcrowded suburban trains in Mumbai, a city where at least seven people lose their lives on railway tracks every day. In 2024, 2,468 people died on the railway tracks in Mumbai, out of which 570 were due to falling off moving trains.
The issue is exacerbated on the CR line where, in the last 15 months, over 600 people have died by falling off trains across Thane, Dombivli, and Kalyan.
'We have been demanding that the railways not operate long-distance trains on the first four rail lines on the Kalyan-Thane route and instead use the newly laid lines 5-6. This would prevent delays and late running, which will finally help in controlling overcrowding inside trains,' said Siddhesh Desai, vice-president of the Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh, a railway passenger union.
However, CR officials said this cannot work as all the 90 long-distance trains arriving and departing from CSMT cannot be operated on rail lines 5-6 on the Kalyan-Vidyavihar route, as they would then need to be diverted on the fast lines, which would impact the local trains.
Railway officials said there are two things that could make a difference in managing crowding inside local trains. 'There is a need for staggering office timings so that they start anywhere between 8 am and 11 am in the morning peak hours. This will help in reducing crowds at platforms and inside trains. There were at least 40 odd organisations and companies which had agreed to do so, but it has never happened,' said another CR official.
Another way to reduce passenger load is to increase the number of 15-car trains on CR, the official added. Currently, CR has only two 15-car trains, which run 22 daily services.