Mumbai, take onus for deaths on tracks

Travelling daily on Mumbai's trains is risky business — most of us break rules and cross tracks, and hang out dangerously on the footboard

Travelling daily on Mumbai’s trains is risky business — most of us break rules and cross tracks, and hang out dangerously on the footboard. When luck runs out, we become a death toll statistic. But, two youngsters are trying to shed light on the fact that the railways are not to blame for all deaths — and they are doing this through a short film.

Ashay Gangwar and Harshit Saran. Pic/Tehniyat Fatima

Meet 25-year-olds Ashay Gangwar and Harshit Saran — childhood friends from Lucknow. Gangwar is an engineering graduate from IIT-Kharagpur, and Saran has an MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.

The railways sees around 3,600 deaths annually in Mumbai. "We are making a 60-second short film that shows what other people see when an accident occurs. We want to change the perspective towards the railways," said Gangwar.

The duo has already identified a few locations for their shoot and plans to wrap it up within two weeks. “We want people to realise that we are doing as much as possible [to safeguard lives]. For the death toll to come down, everyone has to take precautions while travelling," said Anand Vijay Jha, senior divisional security commissioner (Mumbai), Western Railway.

The young filmmakers want to take the onus of their actions and plan to make the film 'gory and sad'. “People need to know that their bid to save a few seconds can cost them their lives,” said Saran.

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