"This shows a mismatch on
reporting of deaths by Railway administration to the Railway Board
concerning safety issues," the report said.
A recent
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has blamed the Indian
Railways for not providing adequate train services, leading to
overcrowding and death of passengers in suburban trains.
The
report, released last week, noted that 33,445 people died between
January 2010 and December 2014, with half the cases being reported from
the Mumbai suburban train network. This translates into more than 18
deaths a day in suburban trains.
“A comparison of the average
number of passengers carried per rake with its carrying capacity,
indicated an average crush load of 2510 passengers per rake,” the CAG
said of the Mumbai suburban trains.
Falls from trains
Crush
load refers to a passenger density of twice the seating capacity of a
rake, as per the Indian Railways. Around 15 per cent of the deaths
happened due to passengers falling from running trains.
The CAG
report said, most of the people who died by falling from running trains
were travelling in Mumbai’s suburban trains, reflecting that “the number
of services is not sufficient to cater to the needs of heavy passenger
traffic.”
Further, the increase in average train services per day
was lower in the Mumbai suburban zone than other railway zones. Most of
the deaths (59 per cent) in the suburban train network happened while
line crossing and trespassing.
There was also a “vast difference
between number of deaths reported (by railway zones) in (the) Annual
Statistical Statement of Indian Railways and the figures reported by the
Government Railway Police (GRP).
For instance, in its annual
statement, Eastern Railway reported 154 deaths during 2010-14 whereas
the GRP reported 7,923 deaths during the period of 2010-13 in the two
divisions of Sealdah and Howrah of the Eastern Railway itself.
“This
shows a mismatch on reporting of deaths by Railway administration to
the Railway Board concerning safety issues,” the report said.
In
terms of on-time performance, except Southern Railway (Chennai, Madurai,
Palghat, Trichy and Trivandrum) and Central Railway (Mumbai, Nagpur,
Bhusawal, Pune and Sholapur), the punctuality target of suburban trains
in other railway zones was met, the report stated.