Delhi Railway Station Stampede: Top Officials Focused on Safety Discussions as Crowd Swelled
Chairman Railway Board had convened a meeting of General Managers and senior officials; by the time the SOS was sounded, ‘an unmanageable crowd was already in… It was too late to close the entry points’, says official
On Saturday (February 16, 2025), the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Railway Board convened a meeting of all General Managers, Divisional Railway Managers and other senior officials through video conferencing to discuss safety-related issues. The meeting originally planned for February 8 was rescheduled. It commenced at 10.30 a.m. and went on for about five hours, railway sources said.
“We had to prepare data and action-taken reports for the meeting well in advance. After the hectic review meeting, which was held on a weekend, most of the officers took a break from routine work. By the time the SOS was sounded in New Delhi, an unmanageable crowd was already in… It was too late to close the entry points,” a senior railway officer involved in operation of special trains for the Kumbh Mela in Northern Railway said.
Even after the meeting was over by around 3 p.m., the instructions given and decisions made by the top railway management in the safety review meeting had to be communicated down the line and officers continued to be busy till late on Saturday, February 16, 2025.
The agenda of the meeting was circulated a few days in advance and the GM and DRMs were busy preparing for the review by engaging their zonal- and divisional-level officers.
“The Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police should have issued an alert on seeing the unusual crowd congregating on two platforms. Instead of making decisions after a crisis, steps should have been taken to avert the situation. But all decision-making senior officials were busy in the meeting through the day,” the officer said.
In railway stations, access control is the most important aspect for regulating the crowd. Once the crowd enters the premises, it becomes a challenge to handle with the railway station being a closed structure.
The officer, who did not want to be quoted, said once there is a large gathering of passengers on the platform, the only option left is to bring the train in to clear the rush. “But it takes more than an hour to bring a rake on to the platform from the yard as the shunting speed is only 15 kmph.”
Former Chief Administrative Officer of Rail Wheel Plant, Bela, Shubhranshu said the DRMs of Lucknow and Prayagraj were handling a much larger crowd of pilgrims with lesser infrastructure.
He said it was a pity that Northern Railway, specifically the Delhi Division, which had a tested and proven protocol of crowd handling, “goofed up” this time.
“Their crowd-management practices have been honed over decades of handling even bigger crowds going for Chhath, Durga Puja, and Holi in exactly the same direction – east. It is not that the Kumbh rush happened only on February 15… crowds were gathering and travelling for over a month now.”
He said everybody knew that a large number of people were travelling to the mela from all corners of the country. With poor planning on train operations and crowd management, this incident was waiting to happen, Mr. Shubhranshu said.
Tirath Rawat was brought to Delhi on Wednesday by the BJP administration and yesterday, he was approached to wait, sources Read more
