Just minutes before the metro train crushed him to death, he was walking around the platform anxiously waiting for the train. A little while after the display board flashed ‘one minute for train towards Vaishali’, with no waning signs, he fell onto the track and disappeared under the oncoming train.
The CCTV footage shows the final moments of the 55-year-old man before the incident at Janakpuri (west) metro station on Wednesday. “It is difficult to spot what is going through someone’s mind in the middle of such a large crowd. Such incidents often happen too quickly for someone to react,” an official from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) said.
Third in 2 months
This is the third suicide attempt in the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) network in two months this year, making it the city’s favoured suicide point. In 2016, 74 suicide attempts were made in metro stations. Of these 74 attempts, 12 people lost their lives. In 2015, 80 such attempts were made, which was a massive jump from the 45 attempts the previous year.
Official data shows that most of these attempts were made on the Blue Line (Noida City Centre/Vaishali-Dwarka sector-21), and the Yellow Line (Huda City Centre-Samaypur Badli).
The CISF, which is responsible for the security at the metro stations, said that though they were able to control the number of such incidents last year compared to 2015, there has been an upward trend in such attempts at the metro, and the agency has been resorting to new measures to prevent such cases.
Signs of depression
“Apart from round the clock CCTV surveillance, we have started training our officials to keep an eye on passengers showing signs of depression and anger. Our officials move around in plain clothes and are trained to stop such incidents,” a CISF spokesperson said.
Depending on the size and crowd of the stations, a close watch is kept on those who appear depressed, nervous, or walk to and away from the brink of the platform many times. An official said that after a passenger misses two trains in a row, they come under their surveillance. In 2016, 19 people were saved by CISF intervention.
Counselling wing
To keep a tab on the growing attempts, Delhi Metro has also constituted a special wing to counsel people reportedly spotted with suicidal tendencies. Platform screen doors are being set up in six stations — Chandni Chowk, Chawri Bazar, Kashmere Gate, New Delhi, Rajiv Chowk, and Central Secretariat.
“These doors will only open when the train arrives at the platform. However, these are meant for crowd management and will not particularly bring down suicide rates. But those wanting to jump on the tracks will no longer be able to do so,” said a metro official. The DMRC recently also reduced the time a person can spend inside metro stations to deter people from loitering.
