A tragic stampede that killed 18 people at New Delhi Railway Station in February was caused by a large piece of luggage falling from a passenger’s head, said Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in Parliament on Friday. The victims included four children and 11 women.
The minister was answering a question from Samajwadi Party MP Ramji Lal Suman. He said a high-level investigation found that the falling luggage caused panic on a crowded foot-over-bridge (FOB), leading to the deadly stampede on February 15.
The incident happened around 8:48 PM on a staircase connecting platforms 14 and 15. This was during the evening rush when many people were heading to Bihar for the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj.
“There was a big headload (luggage carried on the head) that fell, which caused people to trip on the stairs,” the minister said. The post-mortem reports revealed the victims died from traumatic asphyxia (suffocation due to crowd pressure).
The committee also found that although crowd management systems were in place, the number of people on the bridge kept increasing after 8:15 PM. Many of them were carrying heavy bags on their heads, which made movement on the narrow, 25-foot-wide bridge difficult.
According to reports at the time, about 7,600 unreserved tickets were sold that evening — 1,500 tickets every hour — starting from 6 PM, which caused a heavy buildup of people at the station.
This stampede was the worst since the Elphinstone Road railway bridge stampede in Mumbai in 2017, where 23 people died. Experts called the Delhi incident “avoidable” and blamed poor management.
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What Indian Railways Plans to Do:
To avoid such tragedies in the future, the Railways will improve crowd control at 73 busy stations. Here are the main steps:
- Waiting areas outside stations: Temporary waiting zones will become permanent at major stations like New Delhi, Anand Vihar, Varanasi, Ayodhya, and Ghaziabad. Passengers will be allowed to enter platforms only when their trains arrive.
- Access control: Only passengers with confirmed tickets can enter platforms directly. Others must wait in holding areas. All illegal entry points will be closed.
- Wider bridges: Old, narrow foot-over-bridges will be replaced with new ones (6 to 12 metres wide), with ramps for easy movement.
- Better monitoring: CCTV cameras, public announcement systems, and walkie-talkies will be installed for better communication and crowd control.
- Station directors: Every major station will have a station director with full authority to make quick decisions during emergencies. They will manage all departments, staff, and crowd control.
- Ticket sales control: Station directors will also manage how many tickets are sold based on how many people the station and trains can handle.
These new measures aim to make stations safer for all passengers and avoid incidents like the tragic stampede in February.
