1,800 track deaths seen this year till July

A joint report by the Central and Western railways submitted to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has pegged the number of deaths seen on railway tracks between January and July this year at 1,800.

The meeting was held to speed up works related to foot-over and rail-over-bridges, some of which come under the jurisdiction of the BMC and MMRDA. The report recommended speeding up the completion of boundary walls along the tracks, which could prevent people from crossing.

According to the report, a copy of which is with The Asian Age, Central Railway (CR) has completed the construction of 1 lakh metres of boundary walls along the tracks since 2015 and provided 21 stations with fencing.

The Western Railway (WR), in the report, said it would raise the height of 57 platforms, plug gaps in boundary walls at 21 locations and construct 13 new foot-over-bridges at the cost of Rs 304 crore. Ir will also tie up with private hospitals to provide medical services.

Officials said they were working towards preventing the number of deaths caused by illegal, unsafe crossing of tracks. “The onus also lies on the commuters to use the foot-over and rail-over-bridges,” said an official.