A stampede at New Delhi railway station on Saturday led to deaths of 18 and has raised serious concern over crowd management at the station. The incident took place at 10 PM near platforms 13 and 14 reportedly because of a surge in passengers caused by delays in train departures. The situation further escalated when an announcement was made that a special train for Prayagraj led to chaos, leading to panic and overcrowding.
The five reasons that may have led to the tragic stampede at the New Delhi railway station.
1. Platform change announcement: Eyewitnesses reported that a last-minute announcement was made that resulted in confusion and created panic among passengers. The sudden directives led to a huge surge as people rushed to the newly allocated platform.
2. 1500 general tickets were sold: As per railway authorities, about 1,500 general tickets were sold per hour. This overselling of tickets exceeded the capacity of the station to accommodate the crowd, creating an uncontrollable situation that escalated into a stampede.
3. Inadequate crowd control measures: Despite the expected ongoing rush because of the Maha Kumbh festival, there was a notable absence of control measures. Eyewitness recounted that announcements were made to handle the crowd but the attempt was unsuccessful, leading to loss of control over the condition.
4. Trains were delayed: Two trains-Swatantrata Senani Express and Bhubaneswar Rajdhani were delayed resulting in passengers crowding platforms 12, 13, and 14. The main crowd accumulated at platform no 14 where the Prayagraj Express was stationed. The coming together of passengers from all the delayed trains escalated the stampede.
5. Rumours of bridge collapse: Amid escalating chaos, rumours of bridge collapse also spread rapidly among the crowd. This false information triggered fear and panic causing the passengers to push each other to escape from the danger.
Meanwhile, Railway Board has formed a two-level member high-level committee to probe the matter. The Executive Director of Information & Publicity of the Railway Board, Dilip Kumar, stated that the investigation objective is to find out the causes and suggest preventive measures. ‘’The situation is now stable, and normal train operations have restarted,’’ he assured.
The railway station experienced an uncommonly heavy crowding of passengers, persuading railway authorities to announce four special trains to handle the rush. Despite the measures taken, the situation got worsened as passengers found it difficult to board the train, resulting in several cases of fainting. Medical assistance was provided to the affected passengers by the Delhi Police and the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has directed a thorough investigation to prevent future incidents like this. KPS Malhotra, DCP of Railways stated to ANI, ‘’We expected a crowd, but the rush happened suddenly.’’ Security personnel were deployed and entry to the station was restricted temporarily to get the situation under control.
According to several reports, a wrong platform announcement for a special train to Kumbh led to passengers rushing to reserve a seat. This could also have been a reason behind the deadly stampede. The authorities are currently probing the incident and will soon submit its finding.
(With inputs from ANI)