Passenger falls from moving Churchgate-Virar fast local after brawl between commuters

Commuters on a Churchgate-Virar fast local in Mumbai got into a violent fight on Thursday night, and one passenger fell from the moving train. The incident caused panic.

It happened at around 10.30 pm. According to preliminary information, passengers argued over standing at the door between Grant Road and Mumbai Central stations, and the argument turned into a fight.

During the fight, one passenger fell from the moving local. The train was passing the platform at Mumbai Central at the time and was moving slowly, so a major accident was averted. A video of the incident has gone viral on social media. It has raised the question of passenger safety on the local trains once again.

This is not the first such incident on the locals. Violent incidents have occurred several times before. Fights, thefts and even murders have taken place on moving locals and at stations.

A few months ago, a young man named Mayank Lohar was murdered in the first-class compartment of a moving local headed from Churchgate to Nalasopara. Two men had quarrelled over closing the door of the local because of heavy rain. The quarrel escalated, and a young man named Roshan Suvarna, a resident of Andheri, attacked Mayank with a sharp weapon, killing him.

More than 75 lakh people travel by the locals every day, and by some estimates about 1 crore. In Mumbai, road traffic jams make journeys longer, while the local is the fastest and cheapest way to travel. The locals alone connect distant suburbs such as Virar, Kalyan, Panvel and Thane with the city's main business districts. For this reason many people find the journey easy, but safe travel has become a major issue.