334 Lives have been lost during the Year 2022

LUDHIANA: High number of deaths have been witnessed at Ludhiana Railway Station of Ferozepur division and nearby railway tracks. Death is wreaking havoc on these tracks every single day. Though the Railway Protection Force has been continuously giving appeal letters to aware people not to pass the track, but the ground reality is different.

As per the reports, everyday 2 to 4 people cross the track while boarding and alighting from the running train which causes accidents. Around 334 people have died in train accidents in 2022 in Ludhiana city. While in 2023, in the last two months, 40 people have died on the railway tracks. Last week, two women died in a train accident at Ludhiana railway station. 

Notably, More than 70,000 passengers visit this station daily. The number of passengers also crosses 1 lakh mark during the festive season. Due to the large number of passengers, stampede takes place as soon as the train arrives every 10 minutes and passengers do not hesitate to get on the moving train and get down from the platform to cross the tracks. Railway passengers are seen crossing the tracks freely and there is no one to stop them.

Hundreds of commuters could be seen crossing the tracks on platforms outside the offices of railway officials, including the Railway Protection Force (RPF), on which the force had failed to act or alert them. This has raised questions on the performance of RPF.

Revealing the functioning of the Railway Protection Force, passengers named Davinder and Billa said that when a train with general bogies arrive, they witness a lot of commotion at the station as a crowd of passengers try to board and deboard the train at the same time. Which becomes a major reason for accidents.

The station lacks seating benches and many basic amenities. Due to this, people sit on on the floor with their luggage on the platform, making it very difficult for passengers to move to other platforms or to their coaches. 

It is worth mentioning here that Dhandari station of Ludhiana is a station where maximum number of people (101) have died in train accidents. In more than 50% of the accident deaths, the deceased are in a state of intoxication while some people use earphones while crossing the tracks.

In September 2022, three migrant workers were crushed to death by the Kalka Express near Dhandari Kalan. The Northern Division has registered over 2,000 similar cases against trespassers in 2022. 

After the Ludhiana-Guraya section, 176 accidents took place at a distance of 15 km between Ludhiana and Sahnewal. A anonymous RPF official said that the railway staff have been instructed to compulsorily sound the horn while passing through the area falling between 360-375 railway kms.