Kakodkar panel in 2012 had warned situation on Mumbai’s suburban rail system 'grim'

MUMBAI: The Elphinstone tragedy was waiting to happen. While another inquiry has been ordered into the incident which killed 22 people, railways is sitting over recommendations of Anil Kakodkar committee which warned in its February 2012 report that the “situation is grim” across Mumbai’s suburban system.
The panel said an estimated 15,000 people die on railway tracks every year because of trespassing.
“Of this, 6,000 deaths or 40% of the casualties take place on Mumbai's suburban railway network,” said the report, indicating how unsafe travelling on Mumbai suburban tracks has become.
The panel had noted, "We feel the grim situation on Mumbai's suburban system has to be tackled on a war footing. Here, trespassing occurs because of lack of barricading, fencing, lack of adequate number of pedestrian over-bridges and lack of facilities such as sufficient number of platforms, escalators, elevators for the disabled apart from insufficient train services. These are the main reasons for the heavy human death toll."
“Reluctance of Indian Railways to own these casualties, which do not fall under the purview of train accidents but are nevertheless accidents on account of trains can by no means be ignored. No civilised society can accept such massacre on their railway system,” it said.
The committee strongly recommends forming a high-level task force involving the state government, zonal passenger body and NGOs to recommend constructive measures.
A report by the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) in 2015 had also focused on railway foot-over- bridges (FOB) and called for building more FOBs of prescribed sizes to ensure passenger safety.
The report noted FOB as an important passenger amenity and passenger safety item, provided to facilitate movement of passengers from outside the station to any platform and from one platform to another.
“FOBs ensure safety by preventing trespassing of railway track by passenger. FOB of six metre width with cover were required to be provided at stations of A1 and A category, whereas these were required to be provided at all stations of B and D category during doubling/ gauge conversion works wherever they are not available,” it said.