Accident deaths: Central Railway invites suggestions from suburban commuters

Mumbai: A week after setting up a nine-member committee to look into accidental passenger deaths during travel on suburban trains, the Central Railway has now invited suggestions from commuters on tackling the growing menace.

Central Railway's Chief PRO Narendra Patil said, "In its first meeting (on December 6), our committee members discussed various issues on accidental deaths at length, but they also wanted larger participation of commuters. Hence it was decided to incorporate the suggestions of passengers also to weed out the ailing issues of suburban commute."

Issuing a statement, CR said that commuters need not visit any office rather they can send their suggestions by logging on to www.cr.indianrailways.gov.in and clicking the link or copy paste the following http://www.cr.indianrailways .gov.in/view_section.Jsp?lang=0&id=0,7,278 on their browser.

Alternately, they can e-mail their suggestions on suburbansuggestions@gmail.com also, the statement said.

The last date for sending suggestions is December 21.

On November 28, Bhavesh Nakhate, a Dombivili resident, died after falling from an overcrowded train in neighboring Thane district. The video of the incident went viral on social media following which Rail minister Suresh Prabhu reviewed the situation and ordered CR and WR to set up committees to find out reasons behind such accidental deaths.

However, soon after forming the committee, rail experts slammed senior officials and committee members "never travel by local trains" and hence they would "never realise and pinpoint the ailing issues of suburban railways."

Rubbishing these allegations, Patil told PTI, "Our committee members have in depth knowledge of commuting issues and they have taken up this issue very seriously. This could also be understood by the fact that they themselves wanted to incorporate opinion of end users (travellers) that would help us a lot."

The committee comprises nine members, including four MPs Kirit Somaiya, Rajan Vichare, Poonam Mahajan and Arvind Sawant. Other members of the committee are - SK Sood, (General Manager of Central Railway), Ketan Goradia (Commuters Association), LR Nagwani (NGO), Ajoy Mehta (BMC Commissioner) and E Ravindran (Kalyan Dombivili Municipal Commissioner).

It would submit its report (on passenger deaths) by December 31, he said.