Police blame deaths on people attemp­ting to take short cuts in monsoo­n rainsMUMBAI: Fifteen people were killed in separate train accidents in a single day in Mumbai, police said on Friday, with the sharp toll underscoring the dangers of India’s overburdened rail network. About 7.5 million passengers use the overcrowded trains daily on Mumbai’s colonial-era rail network, a lifeline for the city’s 20 million residents. An average of 10 people die on the network every day, either from falling off crowded trains or while crossing the tracks. Nearly 50,000 people were killed in accidents along tracks and on trains across India from 2015 to 2017, according to Indian Railways data. While Indian trains carry nearly 24 million passengers every day, critics say the ageing network is inefficient, overburdened and often unsafe.

Source: The Express Tribune July 19, 2019 15:00 UTC