New Delhi: 6850 people were killed in suburban train accidents in the country with maximum number of casualties of 2937 in Mumbai in 2013, the Lok Sabha was told on Thursday. While 1,214 people were killed in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai witnessed 1,773 and 926 deaths respectively in suburban rail accidents in 2013.
Minister of State for Railway Manoj Sinha said in a written reply that 1,384 people were killed in Mumbai, 929 in Kolkata while Delhi and Chennai witnessed 580 and 446 casualties respectively upto June 2014.
In 2012, Mumbai had witnessed 3,079 casualties while Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi saw 1,773, 969 and 1240 deaths on tracks in the suburban service.
Sinha said that trespassing and crossing of rail tracks are the main reasons of the accident.
Besides crossing multiple tracks while using mobile phones and other electronic gadgets, forcible crossing manned- level crossing gates and violating safety instructions are other reasons for the causualties, he said.
Sinha said that passenger awareness programmes are being organized to prevent such mishaps.
He also said that first aid facilities are available in all passenger trains including suburban trains and stations at metro cities.
