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New Delhi Railway Station Stampede: What We Know So Far

New Delhi

A day after a stampede broke out at the New Delhi railway station, which led to the death of 18 people, and more than a dozen were left injured, the railway ministry said on Sunday that several SOPs have been enforced to avoid any such mishap in the future.

The ministry, in its press release, said: “It has been decided that all special trains in the direction of Prayagraj will run from platform number 16. Therefore, all the passengers wanting to go to Prayagraj shall come and go from the Ajmeri Gate side of the New Delhi railway station.”

The press release further said that regular trains will continue to be operated from all platforms as usual. “This is a step in the direction of avoiding peak-hour rush getting accumulated in one platform.”

Railways have also beefed up the deployment of the Railway Police Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) forces at the New Delhi station to assist passengers by guiding them towards the platform from which their trains are scheduled to depart.

The press release further said: “Besides regular trains towards Prayagraj, one more special train is scheduled to depart at 9 pm to cater to the peak evening-hour demand. Given the unprecedented crowd of travellers wanting to go in the direction of Prayagraj, Indian Railways scheduled five more special trains for February 17, 2025, for Maha Kumbh devotees.”

The  Railways also provided an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the 18 deceased. An amount of Rs 2.5 lakh to grievously injured passengers and a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for passengers with minor injuries were distributed to the 15 injured.

The ministry has set up a two-member high-level committee to investigate Saturday’s stampede. The team has secured all CCTV footage of the station and called in the eyewitnesses.

Besides, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar announced an ex gratia amount of Rs 2 lakh for the families of the deceased hailing from Bihar and Rs 50,000 for those injured in the stampede.

Platform tickets will not be sold at the New Delhi railway station between 4 pm and 11 pm for the next one week at the station to ensure proper crowd management.

Reports suggest that the stampede was triggered by train delays and the arrival of a special Express for the Maha Kumbh Mela, leading to platform overcrowding.The Swatantrata Senani and Bhubaneswar Rajdhani trains were running late, which caused congestion.

According to the Indian Express, around 1,500 general tickets were also sold every hour.

According to a Times OF India report, Preliminary investigations have revealed that the chaos may have been triggered by the presence of two trains with “Prayagraj” in their names.

Passengers panicked when faced with a choice between Prayagraj Express and Prayagraj Special, fearing they couldn’t travel. They rushed to board the latter since the other was delayed, resulting in the deadly stampede.

Passengers slipped on the stairs connecting platforms 14 and 15. A rumour about the Prayagraj Express arriving at a different platform triggered a rush towards the stairs, leading to more jostling. However, the railway authorities have denied it, saying, “No train was cancelled. The platform of any train was not changed.”

Eyewitnesses were quoted saying by Indian Express that nothing was done to control the crowd. The crowd had started increasing at 9 pm, and the GRP (Government Railway Police) and Railways were aware of this, but no proper arrangements were made on time.

Meanwhile, the Opposition blamed the Union government for mismanagement and asked why crowd control measures were not in place. They also accused the government of trying to under-report the number of dead and injured.

 

 

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