After four passengers died and nine were injured in a Mumbai suburban train mishap, Sharad Pawar and other leaders urged Central Railway to improve planning, increase train services, and ensure safety. Demands include automatic doors, fast locals from Diva to CSMT, and infrastructure upgrades.
In the wake of a tragic incident on Monday where at least four passengers lost their lives and nine others sustained injuries after falling off a moving local train between Diva and Mumbra stations, senior political leaders across Maharashtra have called for immediate action to improve Mumbai’s local train infrastructure and passenger safety.
Veteran leader and former Union Minister Sharad Pawar expressed deep concern over the growing number of casualties on Mumbai’s suburban train network. Speaking to the media, the Nationalist Congress Party – Sharad Pawar (NCP-SP) chief stated that the Central Railway administration must urgently implement systematic planning of local train schedules and increase the number of services, particularly on congested routes.
“This incident of passengers falling from a train between Diva and Mumbra is extremely unfortunate. I pay my heartfelt tributes to all the innocent lives lost and pray for the swift recovery of those injured,” said Pawar. “On an average, six to seven people die daily due to overcrowding in Central Railway trains. This is a deeply disturbing statistic and points to a serious lack of infrastructure to handle the growing commuter load.”
Pawar emphasized that the burden should not be placed on the passengers themselves. “After such accidents, blaming the victims is not acceptable. It is the responsibility of the railway authorities to ensure passenger safety,” he added. He also welcomed the decision to install automatic doors in local trains as a step in the right direction and urged the authorities to expedite the implementation.
In a related development, Shiv Sena MP from Kalyan-Dombivli, Dr. Shrikant Shinde, also called for urgent infrastructure upgrades. He stressed the need to start fast local trains from Diva to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) to ease overcrowding and reduce accidents.
“Commuters have been consistently demanding fast local services from Diva to CSMT. The fast trains that earlier did not stop at Diva now halt there, which is a positive step. But we need more dedicated services to meet the growing demand,” Shinde said. He visited the injured passengers at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa and assured their families that the issue would be raised with the central government.
Highlighting the rapid urbanization in areas like Kalyan and Karjat, Shinde noted the increasing pressure on the existing local train services. “Although the fifth and sixth rail lines between Thane and Kalyan have helped somewhat, these must be extended all the way to CSMT. The administration is working on it, but it needs to be expedited,” he asserted.
He also mentioned ongoing projects aimed at expanding rail capacity, such as building the third and fourth lines beyond Kalyan and acquiring land for the same. Furthermore, he emphasized the need to upgrade existing 12-car local trains to 15-car ones to accommodate more passengers and ensure smoother commuting.
Adding to the chorus of criticism, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Harshwardhan Sapkal demanded a high-level inquiry into the incident. He criticized the government’s focus on the bullet train project, contrasting it with the dire state of Mumbai’s local rail services.
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“Mumbaikars want reliable local train services, not a bullet train. The railway administration and the government must stop gambling with the lives of everyday citizens,” Sapkal stated. “For the past eleven years, the people of Maharashtra have only heard empty promises regarding public transport infrastructure.”
The tragic accident has once again exposed the vulnerabilities of Mumbai’s lifeline — its local train system. With lakhs of commuters relying on it daily, the pressure on the railway administration to deliver safer, faster, and more frequent services has never been greater. Political consensus now seems to be emerging around the need for urgent upgrades, increased train services, and stringent safety measures to prevent such heartbreaking incidents in the future.
