Rail minister on delhi stampede: Talking to media persons at Rail Bhavan, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said on Monday (February 17, 2025), ‘There is no conspiracy at this time.’ Vaishnav also said that the information available so far shows that there was not much crowd at New Delhi railway station at the time of stampede on Saturday.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav denied any conspiracy behind the stampede at New Delhi railway station and said that there was not a very unusual crowd on 2 platforms of the station at the time of the incident. He denied the announcement of changing the platform to be the reason for the stampede, saying, “The inquiry committee is investigating it deeply.”
According to railway officials, the total capacity of passengers on all 16 platforms at New Delhi railway station at one time is 48,000 and maximum 3000 people can live on each platform. A railway official said, “Around 12,208 unreserved tickets were sold between 6 pm and 8 pm on February 15 on the day of the incident, while in other days the number is usually around 9,600. Between eight o’clock and 10 pm, 8,900 unreserved tickets are sold on other days, while 7,600 unreserved tickets were sold on February 15.
The official said that when the announcement was made for the Prayagraj Special train on platform-12 at around 8.30 pm, some passengers were confused and they felt that the announcement had been made for Prayagraj Express. The passengers were on platform-14 to climb in Prayagraj Express, but it seems that he was confused with the announcement and started moving towards platform 12. He said, ‘Many passengers were sitting on the stairs and while climbing on them, one person who had heavy items on their heads became unbalanced and fell on the other passengers, causing a stampede.’
‘Information from the war room installed in Rail Bhavan’
The Railway Minister said, “It has been revealed from the war room set up in the rail building to get live feeds from various stations including all the platforms of New Delhi railway station that these stations did not have extraordinary crowd.” He said, ‘We have learned from previous failures and mistakes and that is why such a large crowd of passengers has been managed so well.
He said, “Only 4,000 trains were run in the last Kumbh Mela, while this time we had planned 13,000 trains and so far 12,583 trains have been run.” There is no movement of such a large number of people in a country in the world. Railway officials have worked day and night. It is a very difficult task to handle such a large crowd.
According to the Railway Minister, so far 2.9 crore devotees have traveled by train to go to Mahakumbh Mela. The Railway Minister also justified the distribution of cash to the families and injured of the deceased and said that it is in accordance with the practice.
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