Indian Railways ignored tweets, letters of deadly foot overbridge'
Commuters had warned railways of overcrowding at foot overbridge via social media in 2016.
Mumbai: Commuters have been alerting Indian Railways about the Parel-Elphinstone Road foot-over-bridge (FOB) since last year, but the warnings were ignored completely. Even though the railways have been asking commuters to tweet their problems, no action was ever taken on them.
Cartoonist Manjul had tweeted to the railways on February 1 this year about the crowds at Parel station, which connects with the Elphinstone bridge. “Pre-rush hour Parel station. The only staircase which people use to exit and enter the station. A major accident is waiting to happen,” Manjul had said. Another citizen, Chandan K K, not only tweeted about the possibility of a stampede in July last year but also sent an SMS to railway minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday. “@sureshpprabhu @narendramodi Is central Mumbai station ‘Parel’ awaiting a stampede?- 28 Jul 2016 Chandan K K,” he tweeted. In the SMS sent on Thursday he said, “Another point for follow up at Parel station (central railway). It has only one staircase linking it with Elphinstone road station. The pressure on it is very high during peak hours (morning and evening). Risk of stampede and people falling on the rail tracks is very high. By God’s grace, no mishap has happened but better way to address matter. Please look at the feasibility of an additional staircase at Parel station that will spread the crowd.”
One Rohit Taru tweeted on Nov 17, 2016, “@drmumbaicr Horrible condition at Parel FOB. Request for corrective action or soon it will lead to tragic incident. @sureshprabhu”. Journalist Santosh Andhale tweeted on September 26, “Central Railway please do something … Parel bridge connected to Elephinstone road station.”
Read: Victims’ belongings tell tale of horror that unfolded on FOB
Earlier, Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant, a south Mumbai MP, had raised the issue of the structural problem associated with the FoB. In a 2016 letter, the then Railway minister Suresh Prabhu had also lauded his efforts at bringing Indian Railways attention to the perennial problem. However, his letter also pointed out that due to the paucity of financial resources, the issue does not get enough attention. Mr Prabhu had assured that the construction of a 12 metre wide FOB was under consideration.