Three commuters die on tracks as Central Railway local services stay disrupted for nine hours in Mumbai

Central Railway's local train services in Mumbai remained disrupted through the day on Monday. Services went haywire from 10 am and could be restored to normal only about nine hours later. Passengers faced heavy hardship, and three of them lost their lives in the chaos.

One of them was Sahil Thite, 22, of Bhandup. Another passenger died in Vikhroli. Sahil's relatives allege that the railway administration is responsible for his death.

As the local trains were halted, Sahil got off his train and was walking along the tracks. A local train hit him in the Bhandup railway station area. He fell and died. Sahil's family and friends say the accident was caused by the railway's lax and negligent functioning. Local residents are demanding that the government help Sahil's family.

Sahil lived in Bhandup and had two sisters. He was in the final year of his BCom this year. That day he was returning home from a computer class in Thane. He was hit by a local train while crossing from platform number four at Bhandup, and died. The family has demanded that the railway administration pay compensation to Sahil's family.

Sahil's brother said, "What has happened, neither we nor anyone else can change, but our family should get help."

Two more deaths have also been reported on the local train route between Ghatkopar and Vikhroli. Both bodies have been brought to Rajawadi Hospital. Police had first received information about only one body, but found a second one on reaching the spot. No further information is available yet on how these accidents happened. The talk is that trains were running late, so many people were walking along the tracks, and the accidents occurred in that process. In all, three innocent passengers lost their lives on the rail route during the day.

Meanwhile, Central Railway has appealed to passengers not to walk on the railway tracks and to avoid crossing them. It asked them to use foot overbridges, escalators or lifts to move from one platform to another.