CANSAULIM: Two years ago, a middle-aged woman tried to cross the tracks by crawling between the wagon wheels of a stationary goods train at Cansaulim Railway Station. Midway, to her horror, the train began to move and the woman ended up getting trapped below. She lost her leg but her life was saved by an onlooker who rushed her to the hospital. Today the woman in this story (name withheld) is fine but is spending life without a leg.
This horrifying incident is still in the minds of people from Cansaulim, with many villagers living in Prial ward and the other two wards of Cansaulim village have also stopped going near the tracks and are using the road to commute. But there are still hundreds of them, importantly senior citizens and students who are having no option but to risk their lives every day. The reason: Proposal to build an underpass or foot over bridge at the Cansaulim railway station remains on paper for last over one decade.
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“Our traditional path to the beach passes through the railway tracks. There are hundreds of others like me who are forced to use this track on daily basis for daily needs. There is no option except for walking over 2.5 kilometers long road distance or by crossing the tracks. People choose the railway option because it’s a shortcut. Many times, in a day we face threat to our life as goods trains sometimes remain for a whole day at the station and we have to crawl underneath the goods train. All this because the government, as well as railway, have failed to provide us relief by constructing an underpass,” Shanta Dumaskar, a senior citizen from Cansaulim village said to Herald.
Prakash Ekwade who lives barely 20 meters away from railway tracks said, “Crossing the tracks is fine but when it comes to crawling underneath, danger to our lives looms large as railway authorities have made Cansaulim railway station a halt station for goods trains”.
“Throughout the day we can find railway wagons on the tracks. It’s scarier when elderly people like me or students cross the track by crawling underneath the trains. For many of us it has also become routine but not for all”.
The response of the Southwestern Railways in charge of the tracks is absolutely shocking., coming as it does after ten years. A senior officer in SWR informed Herald that work on the pedestrian subway hasn’t progressed since “earlier there was a proposal for a foot over-bridge but the locals objected for the same and now we are considering constructing underpass, and files for the same has moved before ministry level”.
Mark his words. After ten years, SWR is “still considering” and “files have been moved”. These words are nothing but diversionary tactics.
Raised countless times at Gramm Sabhas but the voice of the people not heard.
The issue of the underpass near railway station has been raised during a majority of gram sabhas held in last several years. From the local MLA to the panchayat body, everyone has put in sincere efforts to put pressure on SWR authorities for underpass (old proposal was for foot overbridge) but year by year this proposal is biting dust in files. To add it the worries, SWR now wants to construct another track as part of their doubling of railway line till Vasco but is ignoring this basic facility.
“This railway track of South Western Railway(SWR) has divided our village into two parts with over 1000 villagers from Prial ward and other adjoining wards are forced to use railway tracks to go to the other market side of the village. On many occasion and especially during morning and evening hours goods trains are parked on the tracks. Villagers are forced to literally crawl underneath the train, risking their life all the time”, said Cansaulim Panch Ratandeep Naik.
Cansaulim Sarpanch Ferwin Saldanha is annoyed with the way railway authorities have been neglecting to provide an underpass in the village. “I had seen that accident where a lady lost her leg, some two years ago. Since then till now several meetings with railway authorities have taken place but no concrete results till date. It’s high time that railways do something on this proposal before they even think of going ahead with doubling of the railway line which all of us have been opposing and would continue to oppose,” Saldanha said.
