Mishap waiting if you don’t MIND THE GAP

Thousands Of Commuters Flirt With Death Every Day As They Hop Over The Yawning Gap Between Trains And Platforms

V Ayyappan | TNN 

Sept 30, 2008

Chennai: Last Tuesday, a 19-year-old college student was runover by a suburban train at St Thomas Mount railway station. According to the police, he had hopped out of a train that was picking speed after a halt. He had slipped through the deadly gap between the plaftorm and the train and fallen into the track. 
    Every morning and evening, thousands of suburban railway passengers run the risk of being sucked into the gaps and losing their lives. The yawning gaps can be seen in the platforms of almost all the suburban stations, which are not equipped to handle broad-gauge suburban trains. 
    Development in infrastructure facilities have clearly not kept pace with the 12 % growth in commuter traffic registered in the suburban sectors. 
    Though Beach-Tambaram sector was converted from metre gauge to broad gauge in 2004-05, most of the railway stations have not yet been equipped to receive the bigger trains. Hence there is a mismatch in the alignment between the trains and the platforms at stations like Chetpet, Guindy, Palavanthangal, Meenambakkam, Tirusulam St Thomas Mount, Egmore, Pallavaram and Mambalam. 
    As the floor level of the trains stand several inches above the platform level, the commuters have to literally climb onto the trains just as they would climb a flight of stairs. This is not only inconvenient for the passengers, but a risk during the rush hour when there is a scramble among them to get in. 
    And the sector is bursting at its seams, especially during peak hours because the number of commuters has shot up over the years. In 2005-06, 3.03 lakh commuters used the services daily but the number have touched 4.46 lakh a day till March 2008. 
    With the railways yet to make the platforms capable of handling broad gauge trains, commuters continue to suffer. 
    “Many of us are not be able to spot the gap in the crowd. I have seen many people trip and fall,” said Virginia Mary, who often commutes between Guindy and Nungambakkam. However, the chances of commuters falling into the track are not so high unless they jump out of a moving train at these stations. 
    “Many women and senior citizen commuters skip a train and wait for the next only because they are scared they will fall into the gap during the jostling,” said Rajkumar T, a commuter at Guindy. 
    “I have a knee problem, and I find it difficult to board and get down from trains at the stations where the levels of the train door and platform do not match,” he added.