The death toll in the June 9 Mumbra train tragedy rose to five after a 51-year-old passenger injured in the incident died on Thursday, officials said.
According to news agency PTI, Thane tehsildar (revenue official) Umesh Patil said the injured commuter, Anil More, who was undergoing treatment in a private hospital, died around 11 am.
He further informed that another commuter, 40-year-old Shiva Gavli, is on ventilator support.
The others injured in the incident had been treated and discharged, Patil said, according to PTI.
The accident occurred during the morning rush hour when two overcrowded Central Railway trains — heading in opposite directions — passed each other on a curved stretch near Mumbra. Eyewitnesses said commuters hanging near the train doors lost balance as bags and bodies collided at high speed, causing some to fall onto the tracks.
The four other victims of the Mumbra train tragedy have been identified as Rahul Gupta, 27; Ketan Saroj, 23; Mayur Shah, 44, and Government Railway Police (GRP) constable Viki Babasaheb Mukhyadal, 33.
Earlier, in an interview with mid-day.com, Central Railway Chief Public Relations Officer (PRO) Dr Swapnil Nila said that the cause of the Mumbra train tragedy remains a mystery and that the railways have immediately expedited the plan to convert suburban services on the main line to 15-car, boosting the capacity by 25 per cent.
He also said that the railway board was “actively looking” at working on closed-door trains, and the design will be finalised soon.
He had also said that the curve on the tracks and the distance between the two tracks are also fine and a committee is investigating the incident.
“We have expedited the plan of converting local trains on the main line to 15-car. There are certain constraints that we are addressing, but it looks like a doable plan, and we shall achieve it. We cannot give a timeline for it immediately, but work has started,” said Dr Nila.
Speaking on overcrowing on trains, Dr Nila had said, “More than the overall crowds, it is the new pockets that have the highest crowd volume. Places like Badlapur, Ambarnath, Karjat and Asangaon have witnessed exponential growth, and we are working on plans to ease the rush in these growth centres.”
(With PTI inputs)
