NEW DELHI – Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told Parliament on Friday that a devastating stampede at the New Delhi railway station in February killed 18 people, including four children and eleven women. The rush was caused by a huge piece of luggage falling off a passenger’s head. This event, which happened during the evening rush hour on February 15, 2025 strengthening Indian Railways’ plans for crowd control at 73 busy stations around the country.
The stampede happened between 9:15 and 9:30 PM on Foot-Over-Bridge (FOB) 3, on the stairs that connect platforms 14 and 15. A lot of people were at the station, mostly to get on trains traveling to Bihar, because the Maha Kumbh celebration was still going on in Prayagraj.
“There was a big headload falling from one of the passengers, which put pressure on the stairs of platforms 14/15 and caused passengers to trip,” Minister Vaishnaw said in his response to Parliament, explaining the results of a high-level inquiry committee. Post-mortem exams showed that the victims died from violent asphyxia.
The inquiry committee’s findings showed that regular crowd control measures were in place, but the number of people on the 25-foot-wide footbridge had been progressively rising since 8:15 PM. A lot of passengers were seen carrying heavy “headloads,” which made it hard for them to move about smoothly and added to the chaos before the deadly crash. Hindustan Times said that 7,600 unreserved tickets were sold that night at a rate of 1,500 per hour. Crowds started to grow from 6:00 PM on.
This horrible event is the worst railway station disaster since the Elphinstone Road stampede in Mumbai in 2017, which killed 23 people. The New Delhi stampede prompted severe criticism from railway experts, who overwhelmingly regarded it a “completely avoidable incident” and a classic case of “mismanagement.”
Complete changes to stop future disasters
Indian Railways is going to use a multi-faceted approach to crowd management at 73 stations that typically see a lot of foot traffic. This is in response to the tragedy and to stop similar events from happening in the future.
The Minister announced some important steps, such as:
Permanent Holding Areas: After the 2024 festival season, when temporary holding areas worked well, permanent holding areas will be built outside of these busy stations. Passengers will only be allowed on the platforms when their trains arrive. This is meant to greatly reduce the number of people at the station. Pilot projects for this system are already going on in big cities including New Delhi, Anand Vihar, Varanasi, Ayodhya, and Ghaziabad.
Complete Access Control: All 73 designated stations will have a stringent access control system put in place. Passengers having confirmed reserved tickets will be able to go directly to the platform. Those without tickets or with waiting list tickets will have to wait in designated outside areas. All entrances to the station that are not allowed will be sealed.
Wider Foot-Over-Bridges: All of the current narrow foot-over-bridge structures at the stations will be replaced with new ones that are 12 meters and 6 meters wide. These bigger bridges with ramps worked quite well for handling people during the recent Maha Kumbh event, showing that they may be used in other situations as well.
Advanced Surveillance and Communication: There will be state-of-the-art surveillance systems, like large networks of CCTV cameras and “war rooms” for coordinating real-time crowd control. Also, all busy stations will have digital communication tools like walkie-talkies and public announcement systems to make sure that information gets out quickly and that people can respond quickly.
Station Directors with More Power: Each big station will now have a senior officer who is in charge of running the station. These directors will have the authority to make quick decisions about money during crowd circumstances and will be in charge of all station operations, with all other departments reporting to them. In addition, station staff will get new uniforms and ID cards so that only authorized people can get into the station.
Controlled Ticket Sales: Station Directors will also be able to regulate ticket sales based on how many people the station can hold and how many trains are running. This step is meant to stop overcrowding right at the entrance, which would make the movement of passengers safer and smoother.CH
These major changes show that Indian Railways is serious about making sure that passengers are safe and that nothing like this happens again.