Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday led his State in expressing disappointment over the railway budget’s failure to cater to the infrastructural and safety needs of the suburban trains in Mumbai.
Termed as the lifeline of the city, the local trains in Mumbai ferry 7.5 commuters daily, which makes up for roughly 30 percent of the daily national rail traffic.
“The budget has nothing for Maharashtra, especially for Mumbai. The Centre must explain then why was the fare hiked by 14.5 per cent,” Mr. Chavan told a Marathi television channel.
The budget announced a slew of new trains for Maharashtra, including six to Mumbai, and 864 new EMUs (coaches) for local trains in two years, as well as a possible bullet train for Mumbai-Ahmedabad.
Commuter organisations and activists in the State, however, attacked the budget for not addressing specific measures to improve passenger safety. Each year 3,500 persons are killed and 7,500 injured while travelling on the Mumbai local trains.
RTI activist Samir Zaveri points out that a 2004 Bombay High Court order had directed the railways to reduce the gap between platforms and trains as it was resulting in a high number of accidents.
“But there has been no action on it or mention of it,” says Mr. Zaveri, who had both his legs amputated after he suffered an accident while crossing the railway tracks at Borivali in suburban Mumbai a few years ago.
Mr. Zaveri also says the Railway Board and Ministry are not serious about implementing the recommendations of the high level safety review committee, headed by Anil Kakodkar, former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman, which had in 2012 recommended several measures to prevent train accidents. “There is no mention of it either in the budget,” says Mr. Zaveri.
Shailendra Kamble, representative of the Committee for the Rights of Railway Passengers, said “there is nothing fresh” in the budget. “There is nothing for Mumbai in terms of infrastructure, platform halts, security issues and basic amenities. The budget has no comments on important issues,” he said.
“It makes no sense to announce new schemes when they are not implemented in a time-bound manner. Like always, nobody is ready to take accountability.” A senior railway Mumbai railway official also echoed similar views. “These coaches had been ordered previously. There is nothing new in it,” he said requesting anonymity.
