This refers to the editorial, “Infrastructural apathy” (October 2). Tragedies like the stampede at the Elphinstone Road station come as a reality check for the railways and puncture the claim that India is poised to take off as a superpower. The foot overbridge, built in the early 1980s, could not stand the ‘population pressures’. Warnings of possible danger by public-spirited men, and even the Comptroller and Auditor General of India went unheeded. The railways now blames it on ‘heavy rains’ and ‘mob behaviour’ and it may now do no more than posting a few policemen at the bridge to regulate the flow of passengers. No doubt the people need to behave more responsibly and avoid overcrowding but common sense dictates that a bridge should be built or rebuilt with sufficient space and strength to accommodate a good number of people and hold a multitude piling on it for whatever reason.
launching bullet trains may create an illusion of development, erecting multi-crore giant-size statues may suit political inclination and renaming stations may pay political dividends but they cannot substitute the upgradation of basic facilities in trains and at railway stations used by millions on a daily basis. Our leaders need to get their priorities right. Their first and foremost priority must be to augment infrastructure scientifically to ensure safety during train journeys.