Mumbai: Commuters fear 2017 Prabhadevi stampede rerun; seek additional platform from WR

Commuter and fisherfolk bodies have urged the railway authorities to avoid a repeat of the 2017 stampede at Prabhadevi (formerly Elphinstone) station. Due to the shifting of office spaces and an increasing number of Worli commuters, the crowd at the station in central Mumbai has steadily risen, often leaving the island platform overcrowded. Both fisherfolk and commuter associations have requested Western Railway to construct an additional platform on the station's east side.

The narrow island platform has as many as 16 various structures on it leaving no breathing space, including five to six canteens, two to three juice stalls, one station, one product stall, multiple water cabins, multiple container cabins and even the ticket checkers offices with toilets.

Devendra Tandel, president, Akhil Maharashtra Machhimar Kruti Samiti. Pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

"We wish to bring to your kind attention the grave danger that commuters of Western Railway are facing while travelling through Prabhadevi Railway Station. There is a single platform at Prabhadevi station and during peak hours of morning and evening, there are trains from both Borivli bound and Churchgate bound that halt at almost the same time. This situation is creating a stampede like situation at both the north and south end of the bridges. There are women commuters who face unwanted harassment and children will be the soft victims if any such untoward incident occurs on account of the uncontrollable number of passengers alighting on this station," Devendra Tandel, president of Akhil Maharashtra Machhimar Kruti Samiti said.

In response to the growing number of commuters in central Mumbai, the recent Western Railway timetable included more train services from central and north Mumbai. Stations such as Prabhadevi, Dadar, Virar, and Dahanu have seen a significant rise in passengers over the years, prompting this adjustment based on statistical data.

"The platforms at Prabhadevi station have too many passenger amenities and there is no free circulating area for commuters to walk and stand. The platform is narrow and when trains come on both sides, it leads to problems. There is a need for design intervention and boosting the capacity of the platform. A double-discharge platform one would be an ideal solution," Anshuman Trivedi, another commuter, said.

"Considering that Prabhadevi railway station has one of the highest number of footfalls in the Western Railway, the area to cater this footfall is highly insufficient in nature thereby threatening the lives and compromising the safety of the railway passengers at large. Hence there is an urgent need for construction of an additional platform or an extension of the existing platform for Andheri/Borivli/Virar Bound trains at Prabhadevi station to diversify the footfall and ensure safety of the citizens of the passengers of Western Railway," Tandel added.

Western Railway officials said they will examine the proposal and assess what can be done best to alleviate the problem at Prabhadevi station.

Average footfall per day

2018-19 72,486
2019-20 74,121
2021-22 23,687
2022-23 54,180
2023-24 62,098
2024-25 67,776 (Sept. 24)

List of structures on narrow platform

. One Station One Product stall
. Water dispenser . Stall 1: Fruit juice . Stall 2: Canteen . Water tap . Water Vending Machine
. Stall 3: Wheeler Multipurpose
. Cabin under steps . SS office under bridge . Container room
. Stall 4: Canteen . Stall 5: Canteen . Stall 6: Fruit juice
. Container office . Toilet block
. TC office with toilet

Disaster on station bridge seven years ago

On September 29, 2017, during the morning rush hour, a stampede occurred at the western side of the foot overbridge on the Parel-Prabhadevi railway station; 23 people were killed and 39 injured.