Title - Emergency room at Thane station unlikely - Mumbai - DNA

Emergency rooms for rail accident victims at Thane and Kalyan stations may not see the light of the day as the railway authorities claim they do not have enough provisions to set up rooms. Activists and citizens, who have been urging the railways to set up such rooms where victims can be attended minutes after the accident, have expressed displeasure.

According to them, since the response time by the Government Railway Police(GRP) and the station authority in attending the injured is more, it results in the death of the victim. “We do not have enough space to set up emergency rooms on the platform. We also have to hire doctors and nurses and provide them with equipment such as oxygen cylinders and machines,” said a railway official.

As per the latest statistics with the railway police, the stretch between Thane, Badlapur and Kalyan has witnessed 193 accidents last month — the second highest was between Kurla and Mulund. The stretch has witnessed 244 deaths in the Harbour line.

According to the data, there have been up to 3,030 accidents in Thane and 3,572 accidents in Kalyan in the last five years.

Twenty-eight-year-old Adil S (name changed) had met with a train accident near Kalyan and had to amputate one arm. Since there was no one to help him during emergency, he put his severed arm in a plastic bag and travel to a civil hospital.

Doctors, however, failed to attach his arm as substantial time had been lost after the accident. “We have to find a solution to this. We have written letters to divisional railway managers of Central and Western Railway, Mumbai division, to start more medical rooms at Thane and Kalyan stations, as accidents rates are highest there,” said Samir Zaveri, an activist.

According to the Thane station authority, once they get any information on the accident, they immediately inform the GRP who reaches the spot to aid the victim.

Instead of emergency rooms, Thane station’s authority has made available two ambulances for victims to drive them to Thane civil hospital.

Central Railway, PRO V Chandrasekhar, said, “We are in the process of checking the usage of such medical rooms to determine if it really could be handy during accidents. We had to close down one at Dadar as it wasn’t functioning properly.”