Stampede At Surat Railway Station: 1 Dead, Several Injured (image: screen grab from twitter.com/ravishndtv)
One person was killed and several left injured in a stampede at Gujarat”s Surat railway station on Saturday. The unexpected rush and following mishap occurred when passengers were trying to enter Tapti Ganga Express, a Bihar-bound special train. Since it is festival season, railway station was overcrowded, especially migrant workers were going to their hometowns in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
The injured were taken to hospital and immediate medical aid were given. Amid the chaos and rush, some passengers suffered panic attack and some fainted, Superintendent of Police (Western Railway) Sarjo Kumari said.
The deceased was identified as Ankit Virendrakumar Singh, 36; he worked in a diamond factory. He hailed from Bhagalpur in Bihar.
Hearing about the accident, Railway Protection Force (RPF), Government Railway Police (GRP), and railway official reached the scene soon. In the afternoon, Surat MP, and Union Minister of State for Railways and Textiles Darshana Jardosh visited the railway station.
Sharing the video footage of the overcrowding and stampede-like situation witnessed in the Surat railway station on the social media platform X, veteran journalist Ravish Kumar writes: “The reality of Railways no longer comes on TV.” When Vande Bharat is being launched day after day, nothing has changed for the common people, he added.
रेलवे की हक़ीक़त अब टीवी पर नहीं आती। दस साल में त्योहारों के समय की भीड़ में कोई सुधार नहीं हुआ। दस साल पहले कम से कम इन बातों को कवर किया जाता था, अब इन्हें ग़ायब कर दिया जाता है। सूरत की यह तस्वीर देख कर याद कुछ नहीं आया क्योंकि भूला ही नहीं था। जो भूल चुके हैं वो याद कर सकते… pic.twitter.com/E8WPWXYJI5
— ravish kumar (@ravishndtv) November 11, 2023
In a statement, the Western Railway PRO Sunil Thakur said that considering the festive seasons, western railway is running 400 trips of 46 pairs of special trains to various places, and among them, 27 pairs are either originating or passing through Surat/ Udhna.
