Goyal orders enquiry into stampede, ensures urgent work on footbridges

Mumbai: Railways Minister Piyush Goyal condemned the Elphinstone Road stampede incident and said that a high level enquiry has been ordered into the incident which left at least 22 dead.

Goyal said, "Have ordered a high level enquiry headed by the Chief Safety Officer, Western Railways."

The minister said, "Deeply grieved at tragic loss of innocent lives due to an unfortunate stampede at Elphinstone Road foot overbridge."

After arriving at Mumbai Airport Goyal said, "My heartfelt condolences to the families of the bereaved. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured persons."

Goyal said he has ordered safety and capacity audit of all the footbridges across railway stations in Mumbai.

"Wherever there is a need for foot over bridges to be widened, we will do it immediately on high priority," Goyal said.

“I have asked officials to look into the matter and find out the loopholes so that we can work on them and eradicate them at the earliest,” he added.

The state government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of those killed in the incident. He said Railways has also announced an ex-gratia of 5 lakh to families of those killed.

He said the expenses of injured will be borne and compensation of Rs 1 lakh will be given to those seriously injured while Rs 50,000 will be given for the treatment of other injured victims in the incident.