Elphinstone Road stampede: One month on, no action against slums outside station

The narrow access to the culprit Elphinstone-Parel FOB continues to be littered with hutments, as BMC and railways bicker over whose responsibility it is to remove them

Did you think Elphinstone Road-Parel station was on its way to becoming safer, after all the uproar and subsequent announcements, claims of joint reports and coordination meetings - precious man-hours spent in discussions and visits? Take a walk along the same access road to the foot overbridge (FOB); not much has changed at ground zero. The encroachments just outside the culprit FOB are still standing, indifferent to the jurisdictional fight between the civic body and the railways on whose job it is to remove them.

Encroachment on the road leading to the Elphinstone Road-Parel station foot overbridge

This raises questions on the joint coordination committee meetings the state government and the railways have been holding every month, followed by a press conference to announce what has been discussed and decided.

Leaving a lot to be desired
The railway bridge on the north end of the west side of Elphinstone Road station, where the stampede happened on September 29, has been opened up with side panels removed for proper circulation of air and new foundations laid for a wider staircase there. However, the existing staircase, as of today, littered with messages of safety that were pasted on it, opens up on to an uneven narrow path, surrounded by anti-social elements, slums and other encroachments.

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The narrow access path that leads to Elphinstone Road-Parel station

While large hutments narrow down the stretch on one side, the other side is fenced with more slums; and anti-social elements roaming around make the area even more unsafe. Physically, the stretch is uneven, unpaved and full of potholes.

Once you take a turn towards the main road on the west, through a narrow patch adjacent to IndiaBulls Finance Centre, hawkers take up one side and abandoned vehicles the other. During the morning and evening peak hours, the stretch is choc-a-bloc with office-goers, people on the way to the Dadar garment-flower market and other pedestrians.

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Passing the buck
While the railways says the area doesn't belong to it and that it has put up clear jurisdiction markers there, the BMC insists the encroachments are on railway land and, therefore, their responsibility.

Assistant Municipal Commissioner of G-south ward Prakash Sapkale said, "We have been conducting joint inspections with the railway team to sort out these issues. All the encroachments near the foot overbridge are in railways' area; it is up to them to clear those. If the railways thinks that the encroachments are in BMC's area, it should give it to us in writing, only then we can initiate action."

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"After the incident, the Western Railway clearly marked out jurisdictions and secured the area. We have put up signages where railway's limit ends and BMC's begins. The encroachments are not in our area," said WR Chief Public Relations Officer Ravinder Bhakar.

"So all that the railway minister and his team in Maharashtra did was firefighting and drama with no real action. If this has to happen after 23 lives are lost and all big decisions taken, what is the use of having such committees, when it is the bureaucrats who keep on fighting over jurisdiction and not look at the larger good?" fumed Subhash Gupta, a former member of the National Railway Users' Consultative Committee.

Also view: Here's why the Elphinstone stampede happened and how Mumbai dealt with it